Recently my place has been turned into a test kitchen for all things mooncake related in preparation for my class this Wednesday. I had made them a while ago but I’m now trying to perfect my snowskin recipe, mooncake technique and find some flavoursome fillings. If you’ve never heard of snowskin mooncakes. Here’s a quick lowdown: Chinese pâtisserie made for the mid-autumn festival which is a festival celebrating the moon. Traditionally they are a baked cake with a thin pastry and very dense filling (lotus paste is a classic) but in the 80s a ‘non’ bake version emerged. The baking part is omitted with the use of Kao fen, a fried glutinous rice flour. I tried a dryer more crumbly filling with coconut and confit cherries (see picture below).

I personally prefer a more creamier filling almost truffle like which I also tried out. If you’re in Paris this Wednesday why not join in the fun and have a go yourself. There are still a few places left. Click here to reserve.

Chocolate & sesame snowskin mooncakes

Ingredients for snowskin (the outside bit of the cake):
(I reduced the sugar since my last recipe)

120 g Kao fen – fried glutinous rice flour
80 g icing sugar
150 g coconut milk
50 g shortening, cold and cubed

Mix all the dried ingredients together. Add the shortening and rub into flour mixture until you have a “crumble/sand” like texture. Pour in the coconut milk and form into a dough. Wrap and chill for 10 minutes.

Ingredients for custard filling:
Recipe adapted from here. You will probably not need all the custard filling.

1 egg yolk
100g caster sugar
20g superfine flour
20g cornflour
15g custard powder
125ml coconut milk

Mix all the ingredients together and then place in a small heat proof bowl and steam for about 30 minutes or until it begins to set. Leave to cool and then refridgerate.

Ingredients for chocolate centre:

25g icing sugar
25g cacao powder
10g sesame seeds (a couple of tablespoons for garnish)
15g butter, unsalted and cubed

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the butter. Mix with a spoon and then use your hands to bring it together (it’s a bit like making crumble but you don’t stop at crumble stage).

You then need to make small balls out of the chocolate filling. Take a look here for a visual idea of what you need to do. The size will depend on your mould. Mine were about 5g. I then took the custard filling (about 8g) and flattened it out into a round and placed a chocolate centre into the middle. Repeat the same with the snowskin dough. Press into a mould. If you have enough moulds I suggest chilling it before unmolding as you’re less likely to damage the mooncake when you unmould it. Another tip: try and not handle the snowskin dough too much as it becomes too soft and makes it harder to unmould.

Chill at least 30 minutes before serving. Garnish with a sprinkle of sesame seeds (or sugar/chocolate sprinkles).