Purple Yam Snow Skin Mooncake

Snow-skin mooncake, or 冰皮月餅, are chewy, unleavened, unbaked treats made from glutinous rice flour that has a consistency like marshmallow, filled with some sort of paste. Calling them “mooncakes” is a misnomer in my opinion, as they are not cake-like at all. They are essentially mochi, except that the skin is slightly less elastic so that it can be pressed into a mooncake shape with a mooncake mold. Snow skin mooncakes are rather contemporary compared to traditional baked mooncakes, created as an easier, non-bake, less-oily alternative to more traditional mooncakes.

Recipe

First, make the paste:

1. Steam the purple yam until soft. Peel the skin off.
2. Either mash by hand or blend in processor (with water) until a smooth paste.
3. Add sugar, butter, extracts, spices, etc to taste. I like to keep my pastes simple, with just sugar and oil.
4. In pan, cook the paste in oil until it becomes thick enough that it doesn’t stick to the pan. You should have a peanut-butter-like consistency.
5. Let the paste cool in the fridge so it’s easier to roll into a ball.

Second, make the mochi dough:

1. For the dough, mix 1 part glutinous rice flour. 1 part rice flour, ½ part cornstarch or wheatstarch, ½ part powder sugar, 2 part milk, ½ part oil.
2. Wisk above together (should be liquid), place in container, then steam for 15 min
3. Knead into dough. Wear gloves. If you use your bare hands, the germs on your hands will make them go bad faster.

Third, cook flour:

1. In a pan, stir and cook dry glutinous rice flour on a dry pan over heat, without oil or water. We will use this cooked powder to dust the mochi so it doesn’t stick to your hands or the mooncake mold.

Fourth, shape:

1. Wrap mochi dough around paste ball of your choice (in this case, purple yam paste).
2. Dust with the cooked flour.
3. Place in mooncake mold and press into shape.
4. Enjoy! Eat within 1-2 days as it can go bad easily since this is not a dry pastry.