Snowy Mooncake 冰皮月餅 is a modernized version of the traditional mooncake that requires no baking. It’s traditional to eat mooncake during Mid-Autumn Festival. It’s difficult to say just how old this tradition is. However, the first mentioning of mooncakes dates back to the Tang Dynasty. A general who just returned from battle received a beautiful box of round cakes from the Turpan people. He shared them with his fellow generals during their Mid-Autumn Festival banquet and called them mooncakes.
The moon has traditionally been associated with the coming together of family, stemming from the word 團圓 tuán yuán. It generally means a family reunion. In various ancient Chinese poems, the moon symbolizes the longing for loved ones. During Mid-Autumn Festival, it’s a celebration of family and showing gratitude to the moon for a good harvest, much like western Thanksgiving.
One famous Mid-Autumn Festival love story is about a couple named 后羿 hòu yì and 嫦娥 cháng é. There are many, many versions of this story but I like this one the most…
Long, long ago, 后羿 hòu yì and 嫦娥 cháng é were sent to earth by the heavens to help mankind. At the time, there were ten suns and they were scorching the earth. People were starving and dying. 后羿 hòu yì was a strong man who was a master archer. He shot his arrows, destroying nine of the suns. The one he left promised to help the earth rather than destroy it.
后羿 hòu yì was rewarded a magical potion to become a god. He didn’t want to separate from his kind-hearted wife, 嫦娥 cháng é, so he gave her the potion for safe keeping. One Mid-Autumn Festival, 后羿 hòu yì took his disciples hunting. One disciple, who knew of the potion, stayed behind. He threatened 嫦娥 cháng é to give him the potion. 嫦娥 cháng é saw his nefarious nature and knew that she could not give him the potion. She had no choice but to consume it herself. This is how she became the Moon Goddess. 后羿 hòu yì was heart-broken and when he looked up at the moon, he could see her shadow like she was looking back at him.
The Jade Emperor (a powerful god) heard about 后羿 hòu yì and 嫦娥 cháng é's sacrifice and made 后羿 hòu yì the god of warriors. He also rewarded 嫦娥 cháng é with the Jade Rabbit 玉兔 that makes magical potions. The three of them now live happily in the Moon Palace.
Mid-Autumn Festival is a fun festival where people make and put up lanterns. There would also be special night markets set up to buy cakes and play riddle guessing games. But most importantly, it’s the gathering of family and friends. Enjoying good food with Snowy Mooncake 冰皮月餅 for dessert can definitely enhance the experience!
My Snowy Mooncake 冰皮月餅 recipe is an easy one. I’ve made the skin very pliable and easy to work with whether you’re using a mold or not. I’ve made two versions of the skin. One has a chewy texture and the other has a softer texture. I’ve also combined store-bought white lotus seed and red bean pastes with home-made ingredients to make the filling less sweet and healthier. And best of all….easier, a lot easier!
I will also show you how to reconstruct a salted egg yolk so that you can have a whole yolk even inside a mini-mooncake. In my opinion, without the egg yolk, it’s just a fancy mochi. I also include a recipe for the traditional Snowy Mooncake 冰皮月餅 filling, mung bean paste.
You’ll find detailed weight information so that it’ll be easy for you to mix and match your preferred fillings. No worries if you don’t have a mooncake mold, I’ll show you how to make three of the cutest little animals that you may not have the heart to bite into. But you will because they are equally delicious! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
The recipe below combines my chewy skin and mung bean filling recipes, using a mooncake mold. To mix and match, I've separated each stage of the recipe for your convenience. Here are the links to each:
Mooncake Skins:
Mooncake Fillings:
Mooncake Shapes:
Snowy Mooncake 冰皮月餅
Ingredients
Ingredients for Snowy Mooncake Skin (chewy and translucent):
- 60 g Glutinous rice flour
- 60 g Sweet potato starch or cassava starch
- 60 g Wheat starch
- 45 g White sugar
- 300 g Milk (300 ml)
- 1 ½ tbsp Condensed milk
- 3 tbsp Oil
Ingredients for Reconstructed Salted Egg Yolks:
- 5 Whole salted egg yolks I used frozen ones that come in pack of 10
- 20 g Unsalted butter , melted (approx. 4 tbsp)
- 1 ½ tbsp Milk powder (whole or skim)
- 20 g Condensed milk (2 tbsps.)
Ingredients for Mung Bean Paste filling:
- 120 g Peeled mung beans
- 400 g Water
- 30 g Unsalted butter , melted (approx. 3 tbsp)
- 60 g Sugar
- 1 tbsp Condensed milk
- 2 tsp Wheat starch
- 2 tsp Cornstarch
- 1 ½ tbsp Water (to mix with starches)
Ingredients for Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour
- 3 tbsp Glutinous rice flour
Instructions
Instructions for making the Snowy Mooncake Skin:
- Combine all of the above ingredients in a mixing bowl
- Whisk until fully mixed. Pour into a steaming pan
the batter will be very thin and runny - Cover the pan with a plate or tin foil so that steam doesn’t get on the batter
- Steam on high for 20 minutes.
My batter was approx. 1.5” in height. If you’re steaming pan is wide, you may use less time. It’s cooked when it’s not runny - When time is up, score the dough and loosen it from the pan.
It will be sticky and it’s fine if it looks roughed-up - Let it cool for 15-30 minutes.
You can start kneading it when it’s still warm. Just don’t burn yourself. Be sure to wear plastic food gloves because the dough is quite sticky - Knead until soft, smooth and elastic. Will take approx. 5 minutes
- Put in a zipper bag or wrap in plastic wrap and cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes
- After 30 minutes, dough skin is ready to use
Note that the dough is now cooked and ready to eat
Instructions for making Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour:
- Use a dry, clean pan. Turn heat to medium and add glutinous rice flour
- Stir for 1 minute and turn heat to low
- Cover with lid for 3 minutes
- Remove lid and stir for 1 minute. It’s cooked when the colour turns lightly yellow or when you can smell the glutinous rice aroma
- Remove from heat and set aside
Instructions for making Reconstructed Salted Egg Yolks:
- Steam salted egg yolks for 10 minutes on high heat
- Roughly mash salted egg yolks
- Put into food processor
- Add 20g unsalted melted butter, 1½ tbsp milk powder and 20g condensed milk in food processor
- Blend until mixed well
- Roll into your desired size balls and place on parchment paper and freeze for one hour before rolling them inside the filling
Instructions for making Mung Bean Paste Filling:
- Soak mung beans overnight or at least 3 hours.
- Drain mung beans in a colander
- Pour 400g of water into a pot and add mung beans. Bring to a boil and turn heat to low.
- Cook until mung beans are broken and water is nearly absorbed. This will take approx. 15-20 minutes. Turn off heat
- Add 30g unsalted butter, 60g sugar and 1 tbsp condensed milk to the mung beans. Mix well
- Use an immersion blender to blend until mixture is smooth
Or pour contents into a blender - Add 1 ½ tbsp water to 2 tsp wheat starch and 2 tsp cornstarch. Mix well and add to mung bean mixture
- Turn heat on to low. Cook and stir for approx. 5 min until thickened
- Let cool and ready to use
mung bean paste will thicken more when cooled
Instructions for Using a Mooncake Mold for Snowy Mooncake:
- Prepare your filling by taking 20g of filling, roll into a ball and flatten with your palm
- Place a reconstructed egg yolk in the center and cover it completely with the filling. Roll into a ball and set aside.
- Repeat until all the filling is rolled and put in the freezer for at least one hour
For easier wrapping 
- Optional: use food colouring to colour all or part of your dough. Here are some samples of how you can use colour in your mooncakes
- Roll the snowy mooncake skin dough into a log shape and cut them into 25g pieces. Roll them into balls. Put under plastic wrap to prevent drying out
Skin to filling ratio is 1:1 (filling includes egg yolk). Adjust weights if your mold is not for 50g mooncakes - Take one skin dough ball and flatten in the palms of your hands
- Put the filling in the middle of the flattened skin and wrap the filling
- Close all openings by pressing and pinching the edges together.
- Roll in your palms until smooth
- Roll the mooncake in a bowl with cooked glutinous rice flour
- Then roll in your palms to even out the cooked glutinous rice flour
Only a light layer of flour is needed - Dust the inside of the mold with cooked glutinous rice flour
- Put it into the mold. Do not force the mooncake into the mold is it doesn’t fit. Reshape it vertically to fit the mold
- Hold the mold base with one hand and press with the other
- Once the stamp presses on the mooncake, press down another 5-6mm and you will feel additional tension on the press
- Now lift the base and keep pressing until mooncake comes out
- Done
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