Crumbly skin mooncakes

I got hold of this recipe last year, some time in August perhaps.  It was from the magazine U weekly.  My father-in-law jokingly said that I should make these mooncakes for him; he had willingly offered to be my guinea pig.  I took about one year to get on with making these mooncakes for him.  

When I first made this mooncake, I was really gung-ho.  In what sense?  I tried to make my own yam paste filling.  Searched the net high and low for a "relatively easy and deliciously looking yam paste" recipe, and well, I could not find one.  I doubt I will ever find one that suited my laziness.  So I decided to substitute it with the Teochew "orh nee".  I was attracted by a relatively simple recipe and delicious looking pictures during one of my blog-hop session.  I jotted down the recipe.  Yes, your eyes are not playing a trick on you, I jotted down the recipe, manually.  Even in this age of technology when things are just one click away from screen to print, I prefer to jot it down on paper with pencil, not pen.  And if you have the Pad, I bet you don't even have to print...  In this sense, I am a bit of a traditional, manual maniac.  Anyway, the point is, in the excitement of getting the details down, I forgot to note down the blog.  I could really kick myself!  But what's done is done.  To cut the story short, my "orh nee" did not turn out as beautiful as it should have been, but it was edible.  
Using this "orh nee", I tested the recipe.  The skin was crumbly, not crispy as the original naming of the recipe indicated.  In fact, it sort of melted in the mouth.  The buttery taste was great and the milk powder gave the crust additional fragrance.  With trepidation, I brought some over to my father-in-law.  He said it tasted good, the crust is really soft and fragrant but what's the filling, he asked.  Hahaha, seems like I failed in the filling!
Not daunted, I made more of these mooncakes; part of the repertoire of mooncakes I made this year to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival.  

I had some leftover red bean paste from the mini snowskin mooncakes session in my other post, so why not use them up?  And of course, the red bean paste came from Phoon Huat.  I think I will give making my own filling a rest...

Original naming and recipe from U Weekly
Crispy yam paste mooncake


Filling 

320g yam paste (I used red bean paste)


Ingredient A
185g plain flour
20g milk powder
1/4 tsp salt                                                                                                   


Ingredient B  
125g cold butter, cut into                       

small cubes


Ingredient C
1 egg yolk


Ingredient D
1 egg yolk, beaten for glazing
white sesame seeds, adequate for sprinkling 

Method

1. Divide yam paste into 8 portions, each weighing 40g and roll into balls.  Reserve for use.  Personally, I think this is too big.  So I made balls of 20g each; that means you get more out of the same about of filling and skin.

2. Sieve ingredient A into a mixing bowl, rub ingredient B cold butter* into flour mixture till it resembles breadcrumbs.  Mix with ingredient C to form dough and divide into 8 portions.  As I have reduced the filling into 20g for each, I weigh out the same amount of dough for wrapping; that is 20g.

3. Wrap 1 portion of yam paste into 1 portion of dough.  One of my favorite blogger, Happy Home Baking, has a great way of wrapping fillings into dough, check it out!  Shape into balls, arrange on baking tray, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with white sesame.  When I made these, I didn’t have white sesame.  I used melon seeds instead, and I think they looked better than sesame seeds! 

4. Bake in preheated oven at 180degC for 15-20 minutes till golden brown. 

* I used Golden Churn butter, I use it for all recipes calling for butter!