Finally My Perfect Snowskin Mooncakes

After the first attempt with premix snowskin mooncake flour, I attempted another recipe before I tried this one which was from a magazine I had for a while.  It was from a Sep-Oct 2010 edition of the magazine "Xin Flavours".  The current September 2012 issue also features a snowskin recipe by the same chef.  The original recipe was for Orange flavoured mooncakes.  I replaced the orange juice with my own flavouring.  Here is the traditional pandan / banana version.  I would say that it is as good as store bought ones!

Snowskin Ingredients:

125g  cooked glutinous flour (gao fen)
50g cooked Hong Kong "Shui Xian" brand flour
175g icing sugar, sifted (I used only 120g)
50g shortening (I used Crisco)
180ml cold pandan water (boil a few pandan leaves in water and chill in the fridge for at least a few hours before using)
A few drops of banana essence

Filling:
600g lotus paste (I used white lotus paste from Phoon Huat mixed with some melon seeds)
Salted Egg Yolks (optional)

If you are using Salted Egg Yolks, separate the yolks from the white and rinse with water then steam for about 10 mins.  Each yolk weighs about 15g.

Method:

• To cook the Hong Kong Flour, fry it in a pan for about 10-15 mins without any oil. Leave to cool then sift and measure out the amount required.
• Put both types of flour and sugar in a mixing bowl and rub in the shortening untill mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Make a well in the center and pour in the pandan water and banana essence.  Mix and knead to form a soft dough.  If you would like colouring, I would advise mixing with the water before pouring into the flour.  The dough is very soft and quickly becomes very sticky to knead.
• Set the dough aside for about 30 mins.
• Weigh the required dough and fillings.  The dough is soft and not easy to knead at this point.  Just dust with Gao Fen and roll it out, then wrap the filling in.  The filling should be shaped into the same shape as the mould (but smaller of course) before wrapping with the skin.
• Press into a mould dusted with Gao Fen and press firmly.
• Chill for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Tip:

• I was using a 125g mould.  I used 70g filling, added in 1 egg yolk (15g) and 40g of dough.  Snowskin mooncakes usually have thicker skin so you can use about 1/3 skin to 2/3 fillings (including egg yolk).  For larger mooncakes, reduce to 1/4 skin and for smaller (50-60g) mould, you can use 1/2 each.
• Be very precise when measuring the ingredients and pour all the liquid ingredients into the flour at one go.  If the dough is already formed and you try to add in more liquid or flour, you will end up overkneading the dough which will become rubbery. I learned this the hardway in my 2nd attempt as the recipe did not give a precise amount of water required!!