Horse 马蹄酥 (Ma-Ti-Su)

 It's the Year of the Horse (马年) so of course I have to make some 马蹄酥 horses!

A closer look at the flaky pastry and gooey filling!

Recipe For 马蹄酥🐴 (horse shoe pastry horses)
(makes about 7 horse pastries)

A.k.a. Beh Teh Soh or Heong Piah in Hokkien dialect or Heong Paeng in Cantonese dialect.

Recipe is adapted from Yeo Min's Chinese Pastry School cookbook. 

For those of you not familiar with the pastry, it has a crisp, flaky crust and a gooey, fragrant, savoury and sweet filling with maltose, shallot oil and toasted white sesame seeds as the stars of the flavour profile.

Filling:
35g sugar (caster or light brown)
55g maltose
1/2 tbs toasted white sesame seeds
10g shallot oil
1g salt
15g cooked glutinous rice flour

Oil dough:
54g plain flour
27g vegetable shortening 
1/16 tsp cocoa powder

Water dough:
70g plain flour
10g caster sugar
8g neutral oil
4g shallot oil
35g warm water
5g maltose
1/16 tsp salt

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp hot water
1/8 tsp cocoa powder

Others:
Black edible marker
A little maltose or honey

Watch my reel to see the process:

( I will update the blog post with the video link once it's up tomorrow!)

METHOD:

1. Prepare filling. Warm maltose and sugar in microwave oven/double boiler. Mix in the rest of ingredients. Rest for 10min. Divide into 15g portions. Freeze for 10min before reshaping to horse face shape. Keep frozen till assembly.

2. Prepare water dough. Whisk all ingredients except flour together to emulsify oil & water. Pour at once into flour. Mix until dough forms. Cover and rest for 15min. Knead until elastic and passes windowpane test. Keep covered

3. Prepare oil dough while resting water dough. Rub shortening into flour and form a ball of dough.

4. Laminate 18g water dough and 9g oil dough as shown in reel. Keep laminated balls of dough covered to prevent drying out.

5. Add 1/16 tsp cocoa powder to 6g of oil dough. Roll to 3mm thick between parchment paper and cut out horse mane. You may use a template and knife. I made a homemade cookie cutter out of an empty can to make it easier. Bake at 150C for 10 min or till done. You may do this after the pastries are baked to have a better gauge of the size of the mane needed.

6. Use leftover oil dough for forming the ears.

7. Roll laminated dough flat, about 8-10cm. Place filling in the middle & enclose. Pinch seams together & place it seam side down. Make sure the seams are properly sealed or the filling will burst out during baking.

8. Prepare egg wash. Dissolve cocoa powder in hot water. Add to egg yolk & mix well. Sieve before using.

9. Brush the tops of the pastry for horse face pattern. Attach ears and egg wash as shown in reel. Make holes for nostrils using toothpick. Imprint the mouth using a straw cut as shown in reel. You may need to deepen the mouth by using the toothpick to indent the smile deeper or it may disappear after baking

10. Bake in preheated oven at 170C fan/180C for 30 min (or until lightly browned). Rotate the baking tray halfway through baking. 

Very helpful tip from Yeo Min: 

Bake pastries on preheated baking tray or hot stone to quickly set the pastries for reducing risk of leaks. That's why I placed each horse on parchment paper squares so that I can yeet them into the oven directly onto a hot surface, baking 3 horses at a time. This tip really works wonders! 

11. Cool slightly before drawing eyes with black edible marker. Attach the mane using a little warmed and softened maltose or honey. Best enjoyed freshly baked or retoasted until warm if stored in airtight container to enjoy the pastries with the filling in a gooey state.

with love,
Phay Shing