Snowskin mooncakes, two attempts

This is an out-of tune, out-of-season post.  I know it, but I will still do it...

Among the many Chinese festivals we have, I had never quite enjoyed the mid-autumn festival.  To me, it was just a time to buy mooncakes and eat them.  As a child, I did not have the luxury of eating many types of mooncakes or have a lantern to light up.  I could only watch the other kids show off their beautiful lanterns of various shapes and sizes.  There was the occasional mooncakes from relatives and the most common one, the one I loved, was the traditional baked mooncakes with black bean paste.  Mother luck would be shining on me if it came with single egg yolk.  In those days, that was luxurious.  

This year however, apathy towards this festival changed.  I made some mooncakes, just to be immersed in the festivity.  The kids were thrilled when I told them that I would be making mooncakes.  Frankly speaking, snowskin mooncakes are not my favorite even though I had decided to try my hands on these.  But comparing baked mooncakes and snowskin ones, I guess the latter is slightly easier to make and honestly, prettier.  I had two recipes on hand and decided to try both.  

This was my first attempt using a recipe from Happy Home Baking. The method is simple with little fuss, something an amateur like me can recreate with little difficulty.  I enjoyed toasting the melon seeds and mixing them into the lotus paste.  I think I enjoyed shopping for the mold and the ingredients more than assembling the mooncake!  The skin hardened when refrigerated; I guess it was due to the high ratio of shortening to sugar and flour.  But it was gloriously soft and smooth once thawed for a few minutes.  Here are some pictures of what I did.

  

The skin is a bit on the thick side.  As I was rolling out the skin as flat as I could, it stuck all over the place; on the tabletop and the roller.  I am not one who can tolerate a mess, and these sticking dough on the tabletop and roller spells "mess" to me.  The frustration thermometer immediately registered increases, but well, the rolling and unsticking had to go on.  It wasn't until the last few pieces of dough left that I remembered a method I saw on Rachel Allens' Bake!  I placed a ball of dough between two sheets of cling film and get a rolling away!  It worked!  No more sticking!  

 

I used this rolling method on my second attempt using a recipe from She Bakes and She Cooks.  This method produced a more chewy texture that remained soft even straight out of the fridge.  However, this recipe required more preparation, what with the steaming of Hong Kong flour and mixing of hot dough, but  it was well worth the effort.  

 

 

All in all, these were enjoyable afternoons as I potter about between the kitchen and the dining area trying out these recipes.  My girl helped out too!  She is getting good at using the weighing machine as I got her to help with weighing out the dough.  This is definitely good maths practical lessons for her to learn more about weight!  For this second attempt, I made some plain white dough and pandan flavoured dough to create a simple rainbow effect.  Loved the result!

 

Ingredients line-up...

 

And the result...

Actually I submitted this last photo to Aspiring Bakers #11: Mid-Autumn Treats (September 2011).  I didn't have a blog at that time.  It was really satisfying to see my own photo among the other great submissions, but I felt pretty shy as everyone else have such beautiful pictures.  But it's okay, practice makes perfect isn't it?  I just hope that I won't be too lazy to practice, and I would be able to up the improvement ladder.