Monday, September 08, 2008

Snow Skin Mooncake - My journey


The mid-autumn festival is approaching again. Last year, I was wowed by the display of mooncakes by bloggers all over the world. Especially my aunt who enticed me to the world of making mooncakes at home. However, I wasn't able to locate the materials and ingredients in Perth then, hence did not attempt to make any.

My grandmother heard of my interest in making mooncakes at home and bought a couple of mooncake moulds. On my most recent trip back to SG, I made sure I packed those mooncake moulds in my luggage back to Perth. Now, because they are made of wood, I decided to place them in my hand luggage (see how precious they are?) so that I can easily declare them. Funnily enough, the Singapore customs stopped me and wanted to have a look at it after x-raying my bag. The Chinese guy didn't even know that was a mooncake mould! Maybe they thought it was a weapon. LOL.

Back in Perth though, the customs officer took it out of my bag and said "AH! Mooncakes! Oh yes, it's nearly that time of the year again. I see that you are going to make some yourself at home?" Yup, that's right. An Australian officer instantly knew what it was. Perhaps the Singaporean officer only ate store bought mooncakes, hence he no longer know that mooncakes can be made at home too! Obviously with the growing number of Asians in Perth, the mooncake mould must be something the Australian officer see often.

Back to my attempt. It took me the whole of a Sunday afternoon to make this. I wasn't too happy with the large snowskin mooncake and had lots of difficulties with them. Soon afterward, I decided to stick on mastering the smaller ones first...Knocking the mooncakes out of the mould was my problem. I realized quickly that you need to coat it with cornflour first so that the mooncake fall out of the mould easily.

Certainly I'm going to be trying the traditional ones next. Given the price of snowskin mooncakes in Perth (2 small ones for AU$6!!!!), I think I saved heaps this year....

You can see that the mooncakes gradually looked nicer..Compare the big one withe small ones!

1st attempt
Looks odd!
Excess skin at the bottom.
Too much filling! It's nearly bursting there.
Slowly getting it.
One of the last ones. It's pretty! And I can see the flower pattern on it now.
One of the innards of the mooncake. The skin is slightly too thick.
Much better?


Snowskin Mooncakes (1 huge one and 18 small ones)
115grams Hong Kong Flour steamed for 15 mins and cooled
115 fried glutinous rice flour
190grams of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of butter or shortening
5 tablespoons of cold water*
2 tsp of pandan essence
2 tablespoons of hongkong flour mixed with 2 tablespoon of water (paste).

Filling
350 grams of pure lotus paste

Method
1) Sieve fried glutinous flour with hongkong flour. Add icing sugar. Make a well and add shortening/butter, pandan essence, water and hot paste. Knead till smooth (may take 5-10 minutes). Roll dough and wrap lotus paste.Dust it lightly with corn flour. Press into mooncake mould. Knock mooncake out from mould and chill. Serve with tea.

*I used more than 15 tablespoons of water!!! I think it might be the humidity of the countries? The air is alot drier in Australia, hence more water is needed?

18 comments:

tigerfish said...

I like mine with lots of filing...so you can give me the "bursting" one.
Good job! You have lots of patience you know, girl!

Kenny Mah said...

Wow, it's really not easy! Brava, for a job well done! :)

Noob Cook said...

waaaahhhh, you make your own mooncakes! I'm so impressed! They are pretty~ :D

Little Inbox said...

I observed the improvement from the first to the last one. :)

Little Corner of Mine said...

Yes, great job! I think practice makes perfect! I failed my first snowskin mooncake attempt and never attempt it again. :P So, well done girl!

Dee said...

Great job, Daphne. You're a braver woman than I :) I popped over to the nearest Tai Thong for my dose.

Par said...

I can't wait to make my first mooncake but still waiting for the molds to come. Probably will make them after the festival...lol

Beachlover said...

what a lovely mooncake you make as the 1st timer!!.I think practise make perfect,right?.now I must try snowskin mooncake!! I have something for you,hop over my kitchen!

Peony said...

wah, you more adventurous than me. too lazy to bring stuff over n make this year.
can dust mold with the fried flour too.

your moonies all look good, busting or not, heehee

SIG said...

Wow woohoo! Great job, Daph. They look wonderful and funny the story about the customs guys. Hehe.

daphne said...

tigerfish-hehhee.i still like eating them, bursting or not. keke

Kenny-thanks!!! =)

noobcook-aww. thanks babe. u r sweet. I'm still learning.

dee-Tai thong? is it an oriental store?

mrs__2be-oo..i shld hv thought of that rather that carrying back to perth! doh!

beachlover-thanks for the award!! I'm also tempted by all the different flavours that Asia offers.

Peony-I'm so happy that u stopped by even though u r in Japan right now!! Thanks for the tip. I will try it next time round.

D-hehe. Yeah! I was so tired after that but felt accomplished!

The Caked Crusader said...

I love mooncakes - they are so beautiful and the wooden moulds are works of art. I have some but haven't used them yet.Shamefully, I haven't ever eaten a mooncake! I need to sort that out - pronto!

LianneK said...

wow, wow, weee daphne .. i wonder who is the lucky fella whom get to enjoy them lol

NOT ME FOR SURE!

daphne said...

the caked crusader- I think the wooden ones make nicer mooncakes too. The pattern looks clearer. U hv to sink your teeth in one soon!! Try the one with the salted egg yolk. Superb.

Lianne babe-ooo. so happy that u dropped by!!!any chance of finding mooncakes in Germany?

Tom Aarons said...

I think I'd call the last four more than perfect! :)

LianneK said...

tough chance! maybe if i drive all the way to munich or dusselfdorf which is like ... hours awaylah .. hummm .. so now, just admire and salivate on PC loh lol

Jude said...

Looks like a fun thing to make... May I ask what Hong Kong flour is? I'm not sure what an equivalent flour would be around my neck of the woods.

Wandering Chopsticks said...

Great job! Even the beginning ones were pretty nice. Do you have a wooden mold or plastic? I bought some plastic molds for my mom in Vietnam, but she really wants metal molds so she can bake the other kind of mooncake. They don't seem to hold their design too well when she makes them either.

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