Purple Sweet Potato Snow Skin Mooncakes
Soft, luscious, and creamy, this purple sweet potato snow skin moon cake is perfect for celebrating the Mid-Autumn festival with family and friends. The snow skin is soft and chewy, while the purple sweet potato filling just melts in your mouth.
Equipment
- 1 Steamer or Wok
- 1 Moon Cake Mold 50g
Ingredients
Snow Skin
- 40 g Rice Flour
- 40 g Glutinous Rice Flour
- 30 g Wheat Starch
- 130 ml Milk + Purple Sweet Potato Liquid (From Steaming) Combine both to reach 130ml
- 25 g Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 40 g Icing Sugar
- 25 g Vegetable Oil
Filling
- 145 g Peeled Purple Sweet Potatoes
- 100 ml Water Added to purple sweet potatoes during steaming
- 60 ml Water Added to purple sweet potatoes when blending
- 17 g Wheat Starch
- 45 g Sweeteneded Condensed Milk
- 25 g Vegetable oil
- 55 g Coconut Cream
- 1/4 Teaspoon Table salt
Instructions
Making the Filling
- Wash and remove the skin from the purple sweet potatoes.
- Cut them into bite-sized pieces and place them into a bowl or plate.
- Add 100ml of water to the purple sweet potatoes and steam them for 11-12 minutes at medium-high heat after the water is boiling. After 11-12 minutes, check and see if they are done by using either a fork or a chopstick and poke the sweet potatoes. You should be able to easily poke a hole through them without much resistance. If they are still hard, then continue steaming them until soft.
- After steaming the sweet potatoes, strain out the liquid but keep the liquid (do not throw it away!). We will use this as a natural food coloring to add a light purplish color to our snow skin dough.
- Place the steamed sweet potatoes inside a blender or food processor. Add in your water, condensed milk, wheat starch, salt, coconut cream, and cooking oil.
- Blend everything together until smooth.
- Now, transfer the filling to a non-stick pan. Cook it on medium heat until you start to see it solidify, then reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking.
- Once the filling no longer sticks to the pan or your spatula and has formed into one big piece, remove it from the pan and transfer it to a bowl.
- Let it cool down, then cover it with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to cool down.
Making the Snow Skin
- In a large bowl, add in your rice flour, glutinous rice flour, wheat starch, icing sugar, and condensed milk. Give a quick whisk.
- Now using a scale, pour out the purple liquid from the sweet potatoes into a bowl and measure out how much liquid you have.
- Next, add milk to the purple liquid until the total weight reaches 130ml.
- Pour this liquid mixture into the large bowl with the other ingredients. Mix everything well together using a whisk.
- Now pour the mixture through a sift onto a pan for steaming. Steam the mixture on medium-high heat for 25 minutes.
- Once done, remove it from the steamer and pour in your cooking oil.
- Now make some cuts to the steamed snow skin and then remove it from the bowl/plate and transfer it to a large mixing bowl.
- Allow the snowskin to cool down for 2-3 minutes before kneading the dough. Knead the dough until it is nice and smooth and all of the oil has been absorbed into the snow skin. Shape it into a ball and cover it with some plastic wrap, and let it rest.
Cooking Glutinous Rice Flour
- Add glutinous rice flour to a saucepan or non-stick pan.
- Stir-fry it on low heat for about 5 minutes or until the color turns into a light beige color, and you can smell an aroma coming from the cooked glutinous rice flour.
- Remove it from the heat and transfer it to a bowl for dusting the mooncakes later.
Assembling the Snow Skin Mooncakes
- Now take out the filling from the fridge and weigh it out.
- Then divide it into 12 pieces (it should be approximately 25g per piece). Do not use more than 25-26g per piece, as it will not fit the mold! If you have any excess, then either make an extra piece with it or consume the extra filling as is.
- Next, roll the filling into balls and then cover them with plastic wrap and place them back in the fridge.
- Now weigh out the snow skin dough and then divide it into 12 pieces. Again, they should be approximately 25g per piece.
- Roll out each piece into a ball and then cover it with plastic wrap.
- Now grab 1 piece of the snowskin and flatten it out into a circle until it is about the size of your palm or about an inch away from the filling when it is placed in the center of the snow skin. You can do this easily by using the palm of your opposite hand and pressing down onto the snow skin and then gently stretching it out with your thumb and index fingers while rotating it with both hands.
- Now grab one piece of your filling and place it in the center of the snow skin dough.
- Then, using your thumb and index finger, hold the filling with one hand and flip it over.
- Now, using your other hand wrap your hand around the sides of the dough and slowly bring the sides toward the center on all sides, making sure not to allow any air pockets to develop.
- Next, flip it over again, and then using your thumb and index finger on one hand with the other hand holding it while rotating, slowly push the snow skin towards the center at the top to cover up all of the filling.
- Once all of the filling has been covered by the snow skin, seal the top by pinching it and then folding it back into the snow skin or ripping off the tip. Roll it out until it becomes smooth and resembles a ball, then cover it with plastic wrap.
- Repeat for all of the other pieces.
- Now grab a brush and then lightly brush the cooked glutinous flour onto the snow skin mooncake. Do not go overboard here; otherwise, the cooked glutinous rice flour will cover up all of your designs.
- Next, grab a 50g moon cake mold and place the moon cake inside the moon cake mold with the smooth side facing up. Make sure that the moon cake pieces can easily fit into the mold. If it doesn’t fit, do not force it in. Instead, gently shape it into a smaller piece by lightly pinching it while rotating it.
- Now, place a piece of parchment paper underneath the moon cake mold and then press down onto the moon cake mold with one hand while holding the mold with the other hand. Keep pressing down for about 12 seconds and then slowly release the mooncake from the mold. If the moon cake doesn’t come out, then gently press down another 1-2 more times while slightly lifting up the moon cake mold.
- Repeat for all of the other pieces.
- Once done, place all of the snow skin mooncakes in a container with a lid in the fridge and chill them for a minimum of 2 hours before eating.
Notes
Note: You need a kitchen scale for this snow skin mooncake recipe! No cups! That’s because you need to be precise to get the right ratio of filling to dough to make the snow skin mooncakes; otherwise, you will end up with too much or too little filling or dough, which won’t fit properly on the moon cake molds. Don’t guess, get a kitchen scale!
You will need 50g moon cake molds for this recipe.