Longevity Peach Snowskin Mooncake (寿桃冰皮月饼)

I have requests for birthday cakes for the older folks and the longevity peach is a popular theme among this age group. As usual, I try to avoid the use of fondant due to the high sugar content. Since Mid-Autumn festival is coming, ingredients for making mooncakes are readily available and I thought "Hey why not make a snowskin mooncake version of longevity peach!" So here it is :)

The tiny mooncakes were shaped with the help of heart-shaped silicone ice cube tray and the bigger one was shaped by hand and a few simple kitchen tools. I will show you how to make these gorgeous peaches without sophisticated equipment.

Silicone heart-shaped ice cube tray

I adapted my recipe from Ann Low's recipe for the snowskin this time and I love it! The skin is much smoother than my previous attempts and the texture is slightly mochi-like. This is a trial "bake" so I only made a small batch of mooncakes.

Ingredients (makes about 5-6 peaches):
12g kou fen plus extra for dusting (cooked glutinous rice flour a.k.a 糕粉)
57g snowskin premix
12g icing sugar
12g shortening
72g water
1/4 tsp pandan flavouring* (alternatively you can boil some water with 2-3 pandan leaves and let it cool)

90-100g white lotus paste (or any other flavor)

Pink gel food colouring
15ml Cool boiled water
Green liquid food colouring

Steps:
1. Mix snowskin premix and kou fen together in a large bowl.

2. Combine water, pandan flavouring, shortening and icing sugar in a small saucepan. Boil until shortening is melted.

3. Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mix and use a spatula to mix well, forming a soft dough. Let it cool before kneading until smooth. Add more kou fen if it is too sticky.

4. Take about 30g of dough and colour it green. Dust with more kou fen as necessary. Set aside.

5. Divide the rest of the dough. As for how to portion it depends on how big you want your peach to be. For ice cube tray moulded ones, the skin should be about 9g only and filling about 7-8g. Larger hand moulded ones can be about 25g with 22g filling. Don't be over generous with the filling as the peach will not turn out nice.

6. Assemble the peach body.
i) Flatten a ball of dough on a baking sheet. Wrap a ball of filling with the plain dough.

ii) Make a pointed end using your fingers and the baking sheet (dough tends to be quite sticky). Twist the point to one side instead of pointing straight down.

iii) Flour a butter knife and use the blunt edge to make an indent as shown in the 4th picture. Rock the knife left and right to create something like a heart shape.

iv) Use a toothpick to create an indent on top (5th picture).

v) Mix some pink food coloring with water. Dip a toothbrush into the water and knock off the excess (this is important. If there is too much "paint" on your brush you will get huge specks of pink on the peach). Spray the "paint" onto the tip of the peach with your finger and the toothbrush.

vi) Dust a baking sheet with kou fen. Place the green dough on top and another baking sheet over the dough. Flatten it. Dust some kou fen on top and use a leaf shaped cookie cutter to cut out the leaves.

vii) Attach the leaves onto the peach body.  You may dab a bit of water if you find it not sticky enough, add some kou fen if it is too sticky to handle.

Here's a peek at a sliced peach!

I had fun making this although it's more time consuming than regular mooncakes. Glad to share this simple technique. Remember to store the peaches in an airtight container to prevent them from drying out.

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

Update: This snowskin recipe is good for 3 days, after which the skin becomes dry and hard. Here's the updated version that can keep for a week but still as smooth.

With love,
Phay Shing