Introducing the centrepiece of our mooncake series – the Genmaicha Lava Kinako Snow Skin Mooncakes! Welcome to Part 3, where we’re presenting unique and creative mooncake ideas just in time for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. Today, let’s delve into the art of crafting these exquisite mooncakes that are poised to elevate your festive celebrations to an entirely new level. The beauty of my snow skin recipe lies in its ability to remain chewy and mochi-like even after spending 3 to 4 days in the freezer. Now, regarding the fillings, we’ll be using the kinako cream cheese custard filling featured in part 1, alongside a delightful addition – genmaicha lava.

What is Snow Skin Mooncake?

Snow skin mooncake is a modern twist on traditional mooncakes. The skin has a soft, chewy mochi-like texture. You can get creative with the filling, which can range from mung bean paste, custard, and cream cheese, to ice cream. Moreover, there’s no baking required, making the process much easier than traditional mooncakes. Therefore, I highly recommend trying your hand at them, especially if you’ve never made mooncakes before.

The key ingredient in snow skin mooncakes is a mixture of glutinous rice flour and rice flour. Despite their similar names, these are two distinct ingredients with unique textures and uses. While rice flour gives a stretchy, cake-like texture when cooked, glutinous rice flour yields a sticky and chewy consistency. Rice flour also imparts a subtle glow to the final product. By combining both flours, the snow skin dough maintains a chewy texture without becoming overly soft or sticky during handling.

Ingredients

The magic begins with a combination of glutinous rice flour, cornstarch, and sugar for the snow skin dough. To bring unique flavors to life, consider incorporating matcha powder or genmaicha (roasted brown rice tea) powder into your dough.

Key Tools for Mooncake Making

Mooncake Mold

The most important tool for making these sweet treats is mooncake mold. It’s an indispensable tool that shapes the mooncakes into their iconic patterns. These molds come in various sizes and designs, allowing you to create stunning visual effects. For all my mooncake recipes, I use a 50g mooncake mold press, which is commonly found on Amazon. One pack usually comes in multiple styles and patterns. You can simply put the dough in the press and easily create a photogenic snow skin mooncake.

Silicone Filling Mold

A silicone filling mold isn’t required when working with fillings that can be easily shaped into balls, like custards and mung bean paste. However, when dealing with lava fillings, a silicone filling mold is a handy tool to ensure precise and consistent measurements. Each ball measures 5g, and it helps create a uniform shape for the filling before it’s wrapped in the dough. You can find these molds on Amazon; that’s where I obtained mine.

Kitchen Scale

A kitchen scale is essential for accurately measuring ingredients, ensuring the proper balance of flavors and textures in your mooncakes. Measuring spoons will also be used in this process.

Disposable Gloves

Disposable Gloves are important when working with snow skin mooncakes. They not only keep your hands clean but also prevent the dough from sticking to your skin. They also come in handy when assembling mooncakes to ensure that the fillings and dough stay intact without any unwanted residue from your hands.

The Process

1. Prepare the Genmaicha Lava Filling

The first part of this mooncake recipe is to prepare the genmaicha lava filling. They need to be set in the freezer overnight, and you only need five ingredients – genmaicha powder, milk, whipping cream, condensed milk, and cornstarch.

Here are the steps on how to make it:

1. Combine genmaicha powder with lukewarm milk. Mix well.
2. In a saucepan, combine whipping cream, milk, condensed milk, and cornstarch. Stir until thoroughly combined.
3. Pour the genmaicha milk mixture into the saucepan. Gently boil over low heat until it thickens, stirring constantly. Allow it to cool down.
4. Transfer the mixture into a piping bag. Pipe it into the silicone filling mold. Freeze for overnight.

Here are the steps on how to make it:

2. Prepare the Snow Skin Dough

The second part of this mooncake recipe involves preparing the snow skin dough. After mixing, it should rest in the fridge for one hour to allow the dough to firm up. You can also prepare the dough the night before, along with the genmaicha lava filling. Doing this will expedite the assembling process the following time.

1. In a mixing bowl, sift rice flour, glutinous rice flour, matcha powder, and corn starch.
2. Add sugar and mix well.
3. Add coconut milk (or whipping cream), milk, and vegetable oil. Mix thoroughly until no clumps remain.
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, poking a few holes in it. This is done to prevent the moisture from steaming from falling into the dough.
5. Steam the mixture for 10-15 minutes over medium-high heat, or until no liquid is visible.
6. After the mixture is cooked, use a fork to mash it. Set it aside to cool down. To expedite the cooling process, you can place it in the freezer for a maximum of 5 minutes.
7. Once cooled, knead the snow skin dough until it becomes smooth. This should take less than 5 minutes.
8. Cover the dough with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour to let the dough to firm up.

3. Prepare the Kinako Cream Cheese Custard Filling

You can find the full recipe for the kinako cream cheese custard filling in my previous blog post.

4. Assemble the Mooncake

The ratio of pastry to filling is crucial. A well-balanced mooncake boasts a delicate outer shell complemented by generous fillings. I adhere to a 20g snow skin to 30g filling ratio. The filling weight encompasses both the cream cheese custard paste and the genmaicha lava filling. Thanks to the silicone filling mold, you’ll have a 5g lava filling automatically, leaving you to work with 20g of the cream cheese custard paste.

Wrap the Lava Filling inside the Cream Cheese Custard Paste

This assembly step requires speed, as the lava filling melts quickly (within minutes). I recommend wrapping a maximum of two portions at a time. Although the cream cheese custard paste isn’t sticky, I prefer handling it with disposable gloves.

1. Prepare the cream cheese custard paste in advance and roll each portion into a ball.
2. Take out two portions of lava filling from the silicone filling mold, and return the rest to the freezer.
3. Gently flatten the custard paste into a disk shape.
4. Position the lava filling in the center.
5. Wrap the cream cheese custard paste around the lava filling.
6. Seal the top by pushing up the paste to the top. 
7. Roll it into a ball. Set it aside. It’s crucial to ensure there are no cracks, so the lava filling won’t leak out.

Wrap the Filling with the Snow Skin Dough

Snow skin is very similar to mochi, and it can stick to your hands easily. I strongly recommend using disposable gloves when working with the dough.

1. Roll the dough into a ball.
2. Carefully flatten it into a disk shape, gradually thinning the edges to create a larger surface area.
3. Put the filling in the middle.
4. Seal the top by pushing the paste upwards.
5. Roll the mooncake between your palms (with gloves) to make a ball. This step guarantees the pastry sticks completely to the filling, preventing any gaps.

5. Shaping the Mooncake

1. Gently dust the dough with cooked glutinous rice flour, shaking off any excess. Also, sprinkle some flour onto the mooncake mold. This step prevents the dough from sticking to the mold while shaping.
2. Put the filled dough into the mooncake mold. Prepare a flat surface, such as a plate, baking sheet, or silicone mat. Press the mold down onto the flat surface. The dough will take on the mold’s shape, imprinting the pattern onto its surface.
3. Lightly press the mold into the dough multiple times, about 3-4 times, to ensure a perfect shape. This step is vital to prevent uneven mooncakes with unclear patterns.

Tips on Shaping the Perfect Snow Skin Mooncakes

SNOW SKIN MUST BE COOLED

It is important to have cooled snow skin before assembling the mooncakes. If the snow skin is still warm, it will be sticky and too soft to handle. In this recipe, you’ll need to wrap the snow skin in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour before use. This process ensures that the dough becomes firmer, stretchier, and less sticky.

COOKED GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR IS NEEDED

Cooked glutinous rice flour is used for coating. While some recipes suggest using cornstarch as a coating, I find it tends to cling a bit too much to the dough. This can cause the dough to dry out faster than usual, resulting in less sharp patterns due to excessive corn starch usage. Making cooked glutinous rice flour is easy – simply microwave glutinous rice flour for 15 seconds or until it warms up. If you don’t have a microwave, you can lightly pan-fry it over low heat until it turns slightly yellow in color.

MAKE SURE THE MOONCAKE MOULD IS LIGHTLY DUSTED

Remember, the word ‘lightly’ is key here. If the mooncake mold has an excess of flour, the pattern won’t appear as sharp and clear. However, if you skip the flour entirely, the dough might adhere too much to the mooncake mold. So, it’s vital to gently dust the dough as well.

THE THICKNESS OF THE SNOW SKIN

To achieve a well-defined pattern on your final product, aim for a thicker center and thinner edges as you roll out the snow skin dough. Begin by rolling out the dough into a disk shape, then gradually roll outward from the center towards the edges.

Other Mooncake Filling Ideas

You can be creative with the fillings. While mung bean paste is a common choice, it takes time and patience to make. I prefer going for simple and delicious fillings, with minimal preparation. Here are some of the mooncakes I made over the past years:

• Snow Skin Mooncakes with Shredded Coconut & Purple Yam Lava
• Taro Mochi Swirl Mooncakes
• Tiramisu Snow Skin Mooncakes

Alternatively, you can revisit the blog posts from the Mooncake Series:

• Part 1: 4 Easy Mooncake Filling Ideas to try for Mid-Autumn Festival
• Part 2: No-Bake Black & Pink Oreo Cream Cheese Snow Skin Mooncakes
• Part 3: Genmaicah Lava Kinako Snow Skin Mooncakes
• Part 4: Coconut Latte Snow Skin Mooncakes
• Part 5: Fruit Jelly Mooncakes
• Part 6: Black Sesame Lava Cookie Crust Mooncakes
• Part 7: Air Fry Matcha Mochi Mooncakes with Cookie Crust