Green Tea Snowskin Mooncake (updated recipe for snowskin)

Green tea snowskin mooncakes! Made with snowskin that stays soft even after a week of storage in the fridge! I love Ann Low's snowskin recipe for its smoothness but for the past couple of times I have been using it, I find that the mooncakes are only good for 3 days. By the 4th day, the skin turns dry and hard. I played around with the fat, flour and water ratio and came up with something just as smooth but can keep for a longer time :).

I will show you how to get the green tea flower on nicely too!

Ingredients (makes 11-12 small mooncakes):
25g kou fen (cooked glutinous rice flour or 糕粉) plus extra for dusting
25g icing sugar
100g snowskin premix (you may replace with 50g kou fen and 50g icing sugar)
25g shortening
125g boiled water
1 tsp green tea powder (For green skin. Omit this for the white skin. Add 1/4 tsp pandan flavoring if you are making plain snowskin with lotus paste filling.)

280g green tea mung bean paste (Bought from Phoon Huat. You may make your own but I am lazy :p.)
1 tbs lotus seeds, toasted (optional)

Steps:
1. Knead the toasted lotus seeds into the green tea mung bean paste and divide into 23g balls.

2. Mix together kou fen, icing sugar and premix. Sift all three ingredients into a large bowl.

3. Dissolve green tea powder in 130-140ml hot water. Portion out 125g into a small saucepan. Add shortening and heat over low heat. Keep stirring until shortening has melted. It is not necessary to bring it to a boil.

4. Pour the hot liquid into the sifted flour mixture and use a spatula to stir until a dough forms. Leave to cool until it is cool enough to handle before kneading until smooth. This waiting time is necessary for the dough to be smooth.

5. Portion the dough into 24-25g balls.

6. Place a ball of dough between baking sheets and flatten using your palm. Place a ball of paste in the middle and wrap it. Lightly dust the surface with kou fen.

7. If you would like to make the flower pattern in a different color, dust the pattern on the mould with a bit of kou fen and place a small amount of different colored dough into the mould such that it covers the pattern nicely. Cover your finger tip with cling wrap to prevent the dough from sticking to your finger.

8. Place the ball of filling wrapped with dough into the mould. Press it firmly and push it out of the mould. Getting one of those moulds with plunger is very helpful as you can dust with less flour, thus helping to keep the mooncakes moist for a longer time.

9. Chill the mooncakes for a few hours before consuming. Store the mooncakes in an airtight container that is not too big for the mooncakes in the fridge.

Enjoy!

 I'm joining Best Recipes for Everyone August 2014 Event Theme: Dim Sum hosted by Fion XuanHom's Mom.

Check out this recipe for steamed soft cakes if you have any leftover kou fen that you don't know what to do with.

With love,
Phay Shing