Snow skin mooncakes originated in Hong Kong and began to appear in the market around the 1980s, initially created by a single bakery. This unique mooncake is called “snow skin” because it disrupts the traditional mooncake-making process. The outer skin of traditional mooncakes is made with syrup, presenting a golden color, while snow skin mooncakes use glutinous rice as one of the ingredients, resulting in a white outer skin that requires refrigeration, which is vastly different from traditional mooncakes.
The ingredients for making snow skin mooncakes include glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour, custard flour, as well as milk, lotus seed paste, cooked glutinous rice flour, sugar, and salad oil. The process is as follows: first, mix milk and salad oil in a bowl and stir well; then, combine and sift the three types of flour, slowly adding the flour mixture to the milk-oil mixture, continuing to stir until smooth; afterwards, steam this mixture for about 20 minutes; once steamed, remove it and knead it into a dough while it’s still warm, placing it aside to cool for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the lotus seed paste filling. After the dough has cooled, roll the filling and the snow skin into small balls of the same weight (for example, 50 grams each). Take a piece of snow skin, flatten it, and wrap it around a filling ball, carefully sealing the edges. After that, press it into shape using a mooncake mold dusted with cooked glutinous rice flour, and beautiful snow skin mooncakes are born.
It is important to note that freshly made snow skin mooncakes should not be eaten immediately; the best flavor is achieved after a night in the refrigerator. Therefore, patiently waiting to allow time to enhance the flavor of this dessert is an indispensable part of enjoying snow skin mooncakes.
