Snow Skin Mooncake 冰皮月餅
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If you have been following this blog, you probably remember my last minute mooncake recipe from last year.
Since I owe everyone a bunch of recipes, I’ve decided to be more proactive this time by starting the mooncakes conversation 4 weeks ahead of the Mid-Autumn-Festival which lands on 9/15/2016 this year. Also, if you are feeling lucky, make sure you check out my mega Mid-Autumn Festival Giveaway where you can win a bundle of kitchen goodies valued over $200.
Just as a reminder, mooncake is a traditional food eaten during Mid-Autumn-Festival and honestly, the probably the only reason I celebrate this occasion. While the traditional mooncakes will always have a place in my heart, I have been increasingly drawn towards this new breed of mooncake called Snow Skin Mooncake, aka Snowskin Mooncake, Ice Skin Mooncake, Snowy Mooncake.
Known for the soft, sticky, and snowy white cake skin, these snow skin mooncakes are very different from the traditional ones in terms of texture and taste. Per this article, snow skin mooncakes were first created as a healthier alternative to the traditional baked mooncakes which are laden with sugar and fat.
With snow skin mooncakes, the stuffing is normally less sweet and sometimes consists of fresh fruits. And most importantly, the snow skin dough is made from steamed rice flour batter, giving it a soft and sticky texture similar to that of Japanese mochi.
Oh one more thing, mooncakes are typically smaller in size which means you will need smaller mooncake mold like the 50g ones I have below.
In this recipe, I used egg custard filling because it’s really delicious and I also happen to have it on hand. However, you cam use a variety of other fillings such as red bean paste, lotus seed paste, taro paste, and etc.
Lastly, if you decide to make a lot of these cakes and don’t plan to consume all the snow skin mooncakes right away, it’s better to store them in sealed boxes and leave in a fridge or freezer for up to 10 days. When you are ready to serve just take them out and bring to close to room temperature.
Snow Skin Mooncake 冰皮月餅
Yield: 12 mooncakes
Prep Time: 60mins
Cook Time: 20mins
Total Time: 1h 20mins
Ingredients:
- 20g powdered sugar (for assembly)
Mooncake Skin
- 50g glutinous rice flour
- 50g rice flour
- 30g wheat starch
- 30 powdered sugar
- 30g cooking oil
- 30g condensed milk
- 230ml whole milk
Filling
- 300g egg custard filling
Directions:
In a large heat-proof mixing bowl, combine the milk and condensed milk. In the meantime, setup a steamer and start heating up the water.
Sift the dry mixture into the wet mixing, in batches. Mix with a whisk in between the sift.
Continue to mix until the mixture becomes smooth and lump free.
Add cooking oil to the mixture and mix until the oil is incorporated.
Place the mixing bowl in the steamer and steam for 20 minutes (my preferred steamer is a large wok + steaming rack + a lid)
20 minutes later, the steamed rice dough is ready and should look like this.
As soon as the dough is cool enough to be handled by hand, break the dough into smaller chunks and transfer the chunks to a Ziploc or food twist-tie bag.
While the dough is still warm, spread the dough into thin layer and fold a few times. Repeat this process until the dough turns smooth.
Form the dough into a cylinder and you are ready to assemble some mooncakes. To assemble the mooncake, you'll need a pair food service gloves, work station, and parchment paper lined counter or tray. Please also take a look at the steps in my traditional mooncake recipe for more detailed explanations.
First, make sure you know the capacity of your mooncake mold. The ones I use are labeled as 50g so I divide dough into 30g pieces and the egg custard filling into 20g pieces. If you decide to use a different stuffing, please do experiment a bit.
With food service gloves on, roll a piece of dough into a ball, flatten the ball into a wrapper about 1/8" thick. Try to make the center of the wrapper slightly thick then the edge. Place the egg custard filling in the middle of the wrapper.
Fold up the wrapper to completely enclose the filling. This might be the hardest part of the process but do practice a little to get comfortable with whatever the folding method you choose. 
Gently roll the mooncake between your palms to smooth out the surface and shape into ball.
Coat the inside of your mooncake mold with a layer of powdered sugar. Follow the mold instruction to press your mooncake accordingly. Repeat to assemble the rest of your mooncakes.
Transfer the mooncakes to a parchment-lined tray. Serve immediately or cover and chill in a fridge for up to 5 days. You can store for longer by freezing for up to 30 days but just make sure you wrap it really well.
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Thanks for sharing your recipe. I’ve tried this recipe and it turns out great. The texture is awesome on the day itself but I find that the skin harden the next day and loses the chewiness completely on day-3. How do I retain the softness in the skin?
Hi there! Can you leave moon cakes out of the fridge for like 2 or 3 days without it going bad?
hi there, if you are referring to the snow skin mooncakes, the answer is yes. This type of mooncakes need to be refrigerated at all time and consumed within days. But if you are referring to the traditional baked mooncakes then they can be in room temperature for a few days without going bad. Hope this helps.
Hi thanks for your Snow Skin Recipe, I wrapped with plastic and freeze it after moulding, after took out from the freezer some water inside the plastic will it get fungus if I chill it some more days? Thanks
hi Evelyn, if you keep the mooncakes in the fridge, they should keep just fine for a few more days. Hope this helps.
230 g or 230 ml whole milk which one
we use
so sorry for getting back to you late. Please use 230ml (although 230g will come out somewhat close too). I also updated the recipe.
Hello! Tried this recipe, are we supposed to be using cooked glutenous rice flour (kao fen) or just glutenous rice flour as you stated? Finding that its pretty flimsy and powdery still
hi Ave, this recipe uses glutenous flour. Once the glutenous mixture is steamed and kneaded, it should not be powdery at all. Hope this answers your questions.
can we replace condensed milk with other ingredient?
Hi there, thanks for checking out the blog. If you can’t use condensed milk, you can skip it and add slightly more sugar to bring up the sweetness (you do lose some of the richness though). Unfortunately there isn’t a direct substitute to condensed milk. Hope this helps 🙂
Thanks for the recipe. Can you advise me on what I’m doing wrong? I’ve kneaded the snowskin dough for 20 minutes but no matter how long I knead the dough it remains extremely sticky. Unless I heavily coat my hand with kao fen or powdered sugar, the dough is impossible to work with. Is it supposed to be this sticky ?
Hi Mary, thanks for checking out this recipe. When kneading the dough, do you use a ziploc? That’s the trick I use to avoid sticky rice dough. Also wearing a pair of gloves helps as well. Hope this helps.
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Thanks for posting about the snow skin mooncake. What a great alternative to the standard mooncakes! I have never cared much for the traditional mooncakes, but I like the sound of these. Can’t wait to try them out, but I have to find the molds first. Thanks again!
Thanks Sylvia. Hope you get to make this. If you can’t find the molds locally definitely check out amazon.com.
Hi Yi , you are right and I will try with Amazon. Btw how nice your report from Japan you made me feel like I was there! I’ll follow next step grateful to read you. Have a pleasent day.
Hi Yi. I just have seen your kind e mail. How nice of you ! It is not easy but l’ll try to find the mooncake mold not so common here , in fact I always been courios about that and your mooncakes looks so beautiful! Thnks and regards
Hello Anna, it’s great to hear from you. A few other readers also mentioned to me the difficulties of getting mooncake molds. If there is a Chinatown near you in Italy, you might be able to find it. Alternatively, online shops like Amazon should also have it. Hope you get to try these homemade mooncakes one day!
Now I know what egg custards are use for and I’m in love! Your mooncakes are simply gorgeous!
Thank you 🙂
Thanks for posting this recipe on the Snowskin Mooncake. I’ve been looking for this! Where do you recommend getting the molds? Thanks again.
The molds are available on Amazon and Ebay. Many different sizes, shapes and designs available. 25g, 35g, 50g, 75g, 100g, 250g, etc. so be sure to check the sizes carefully.