No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

  This time, I experimented with Chai Tea to act as a flavour for the dough skin of this 'Bing Pi',  冰皮 mooncake.  These non-baked snowskin mooncakes are soft, slightly chewy and can be referred to as mochi mooncake too.  Nowadays snowskin mooncakes are gaining popularity and like their baked counterparts, they can house different flavours of lotus paste as well. Chai Tea Snowskin mini Mooncake 2020  ~  柴茶冰皮月饼    Ingredients 65 gm Kao Fun (fried glutinous rice flour) 18 gm wheat starch 18 gm superfine flour 50 gm icing sugar 25 gm Crisco shortening 60 gm water 1 Tbsp Chai Tea 240 gm lotus paste for filling Method Mix wheat starch and superfine flour thoroughly, steam on medium heat for 3 minutes.  Let cool.  Sift into a mixing bowl. Sift in kao fun and mix well.   Steep Chai Tea bag in about 1/4 cup hot water. In a pot, boil water with shortening and icing sugar.  Once shortening and icing sugar have melted, pour this into...

The Mid-Autumn Mooncake Festival is here again and it falls on 1st October, a Thursday this year.  But I have seen some mooncakes already on sale, maybe they want to catch up on sales during this Recovey Movement Control Order.  I have shared quite a few mooncake recipes on my blog and this time I'm sharing with you this Purple Sweet Potato Mooncakes.  Give it a try if you prefer something different from the norm. Purple Sweet Potato Mooncake 2020  ~   紫薯月饼  (adapted from 'here' ) Ingredients 700 gm purple sweet potatoes (only 500 gm required) 5 Tbsp honey 65 ml oil 440 gm lotus paste Koh fun (fried glutinous flour) Method Steam the sweet potatoes, remove the skin and weigh out 500 gm to mash till fine.  (You can use the food processor or with a fork), I used the food chopper. Add in honey, oil and blend till fine, knead lightly. Divide into 25 gm dough, roll into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for about 30 min...

It's the time of the year for mooncakes again and as in previous years, there seems to be a growing vast variety of mooncakes of different flavours.  This year, the Mid-Autumn or Mooncake Festival falls on 13th September, Friday.  The malls are all decorated with paraphenalia associated with the festival and sell special food at this time of the year. Snowskin yam paste mooncake  ~ 2019 ~ 芋头冰皮月饼) Ingredients for Yam Paste 500 gm yam 100 gm sugar 25 gm wheatstarch 1/8 tsp salt 70 ml vegetable oil (may require less) Method Peel yam, cut into slices and weigh out 500 gm.   Steam yam slices on medium heat for about 30 mins. till soft. Immediately mash up the yam slices while still hot (yam will harden once cooled) OR can use a handheld blender to blend.  (I used the latter). Pour the mashed yam into a non-stick pot, stir on low heat adding oil little by little.  Gradually add in sugar and salt.  All this while, keep st...

These snow skin mooncakes stay fresh and soft even after being kept chilled for a few days.  There is a great variety of mooncakes to choose from these days and for the snow skin mooncakes, one can create different flavours for the snow skin and this time I chose to add in Kahlua for a coffee flavour. Kahlua snow skin mooncake ~ 2018 ~  咖啡冰皮月饼    Ingredients for Dough 65 gm kao fun 17.5 gm wheat starch       )   Mix and steam for 3 mins. 17.5 gm superfine flour   )   Let cool and sift 60 gm icing sugar 25 gm shortening 65 gm hot water                )   Dissolve the coffee granules. 1.5 tsp coffee granules     )   Let cool 2 tsp Kahlua liqueur Filling 250 gm lotus paste (store bought) For a 50 gm mould, the dough is 25 gm 10 gm melon seeds, slightly toasted  and filling is also 25 gm This recipe is adapted ...

As the name implies, these snowskin mooncakes have a hint bit of orange liqueur and I used a different recipe this time.   I adapted the recipe from Ah Tze  (only made a quarter of the recipe) as I was curious to steam the wheat starch and plain flour and whether the flours will be wet and difficult to sift.  But no, after cooled, just sift through.  This is a keeper recipe for the mooncakes stayed soft and nice even after the fifth day, stored in an airtight container, chilled.  A great thank you to Ah Tze for sharing this recipe. Have a pleasant and enjoyable Mid-Autumn Festival! Cointreau liqueur snowskin mooncake ~  橙酒莲蓉冰皮月餅 Ingredients 65 gm kao fun (cooked glutinous rice flour) 17.1/2 gm wheat starch flour 17.1/2 gm ssuperfine flour 60 gm icing sugar 25 gm Crisco shortening 60 gm water 15 ml/3 tsp Cointreau liqueur Pandan/screwpine leaves (optional) Filling 250 gm lotus paste (store bought) some dri...