Nicola
- Sep 11, 2016
- 5 min read

Mid-Autumn Festival Series: Snow Skin Coconut Custard Mooncakes

Updated: Apr 15, 2020

Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner, as mentioned in the previous post, mooncakes are a customary food to eat during the celebration.

Mid-Autumn Festival related posts:

Homemade Golden Syrup – 黄金糖浆

Homemade Lotus Seed Paste Rainbow Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes

Snow Skin Coconut Custard Mooncakes

Snow Skin Taro Mooncakes made with Fried Glutinous Rice Flour

Suzhou Savoury Mooncakes

Taro Root Filling for Mooncakes or other yum pastries

Traditional Lotus Seed Paste Mooncakes

Following the recipe on Suzhou Savoury Mooncakes will be the ever popular Snow Skin Mooncake, also known as Ice Skin Mooncake or Crystal Mooncake. These non-baked Mooncakes originate from Hong Kong as a reduced sugar and reduced fat option. They are similar to the Japanese Mochi Ice Cream or Frozen Daifuku, where there is a glutinous rice wrapper enveloping a delicious filling.

Typically, Snow Skin Mooncakes are white and served cold from the freezer, however, nowadays you will often see that these glutinous rice wrappers are coloured in a colour to represent the flavours. For example, green for green tea, purple for taro, pink for strawberry. Snow Skin Mooncakes have a wide variety of flavours from custard, mung bean paste, durian to green tea.

Where to buy the Mooncake Press/Mould?

I ordered a Mooncake press off of Amazon specifically to do this recipe for you readers! However, it took quite a bit longer than expected to arrive. A friend of mine had mentioned that her mother-in-law got her mooncake press somewhere in Vancouver’s Chinatown. So later that morning, I drove up and down the streets of Chinatown looking for a kitchen store my friend had told me about. I found several on East Pender Street between Main Street and Gore Avenue. After walking into the first store “Tinland Cookware” at 260 East Pender, I found exactly what I was looking for. They had the plastic mooncake presses, as well as the traditional wooden mooncake moulds. I got the plastic press with a face plate included for $5.99 CAD and each additional face plates were $0.99 CAD.

Where to buy some of the unique ingredients?

Glutinous Rice Flour, Rice Flour, Wheat Starch, Custard Powder, and Milk Powder. I bought all these ingredients at one store called 88 Supermarket on 4801 Victoria Drive in Vancouver BC. You can also find these at any asian supermarket such as T&T Supermarket.

Snow Skin Coconut Custard Mooncakes

Makes 12 Mooncakes

Ingredients:

Filling: 110ml coconut milk or milk 60 grams (1/4 cup) sugar 30 grams unsalted butter 60 grams (1/2 cup) wheat starch 20 grams (2 tablespoons) cornstarch or tapioca starch 20 grams (2 tablespoons) custard powder 6 grams (2 teaspoons) milk powder 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Optionally you can substitute with pre-made taro paste or pre-made lotus paste

Snow Skin Wrapper: 55 grams (1/2 cup) glutinous rice flour 40 grams (4 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon) rice flour 20 grams (2 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon) wheat starch 40 grams (5 tablespoon) powdered sugar 190 grams (190ml) milk 20 grams (20ml) cooking oil

Coating: 1/4 cup glutinous rice flour 2 tablespoon powdered sugar

For the filling:

In a small saucepan over low heat, dissolve the sugar and butter with the coconut milk or milk. Depending on if you want coconut custard filling or just custard filling. Heat the mixture slowly while you move on to the next steps.
Sift together the wheat starch, cornstarch/tapioca starch, custard powder, and milk powder into a mixing bowl. Make sure the dry mixture is mixed together well.
Next, add the eggs and vanilla extract to the dry mixture and mix together well. The mixture should be smooth with no lumps.
Next we want to combine the milk mixture with the egg mixture. We need to temper the egg mixture so that the egg mixture does not curdle in the hot milk mixture. While whisking the egg mixture, add about 1/4 of the milk mixture directly to the egg mixture. This will bring the egg mixture to a warmer temperature.
Slowly add the remaining of the milk mixture into the egg mixture, while whisking. Once all the milk mixture has been added, strain through wire sieve to make sure their are no lumps. Return the egg-milk mixture back to the saucepan and allow the mixture to heat up over medium heat. This will take about 4 to 6 minutes, as the mixture thickens. Keep stirring to ensure there are no lumps.
Lay flat a piece of plastic wrap on the counter top surface, then scoop the mixture on to it. Use your utensil to help form a long cigar shape. Wrap with plastic wrap, rolling it out to form a cigar and place in the fridge to chill for 3 hours. This will allow the mixture to firm up and be easier to handle.

For the Snow Skin Wrapper:

Prepare a steamer over medium high heat.
Sift the glutinous rice flour, rice flour, wheat starch, and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.
Next, mix in the milk into the flour mixture.
Next, mix in the oil into the flour mixture.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a shallow pan.
Cover the pan with plastic wrap, and place in the steamer for 25 minutes to 30 minutes. The mixture should turn slightly transparent and there should be no more liquid.
Remove the shallow pan from the steamer and then use chopsticks to mix the mixture up until it is smooth.
Cover with plastic wrap or a plastic bag, and then knead with both hands for several minutes until the dough becomes smooth and soft.
Form into a log shape and cover completely with plastic wrap or the plastic bag and place it in the fridge for 2 hours.
Optional step to do if you want coloured skin, if not skip to the next step: Divide the dough into equal portions and dab a small amount of the preferred food colouring to the dough. Knead the colour into the dough until the food colouring is evenly distributed.

For the coating:

Prepare the dusting flour by mixing together the glutinous rice flour and the powdered sugar.

To assemble

Portion the filling making 12 equal size balls.
Portion the wrapped dough making 12 equal size balls.
Dust the work surface with the dusting flour, and dust the mooncake stamp with the flour as well.
Place the dough on the lightly dusted surface, and flatten slightly with the palm, then roll out the dough into a round disc. Make sure the dough is not too thin!
Place the filling in the middle of the wrapper and wrap the wrapper around the filling. Seal completely and tightly.
Place the ball seam side down, and seamless side up.
Shape the ball with your palm slightly.
Place the mooncake press over the ball. Press down on the lever firmly so that the mooncake shape is formed and the face plate makes an imprint. Tap the side of the press a bit, if needed, then press lever to release.
Repeat until all the mooncakes have been made. Transfer to a plate.
Chill the mooncakes in the fridge for 6 hours before serving. Alternatively you can freeze them in a tightly sealed container for up to 30 days.