Chocolate Red Bean Snow Skin Moon Cake

Its been a while since I have posted anything... But that is okay because these delicious moon cakes make up for it!

Moon cakes are those yummy celebratory sweets that are gifted to friends and family during the mid-autumn festival, otherwise known as moon festival or what I call "moon cake festival". There is a legend behind the birth of this festival which I tried to read about last year, however it bored me a little and so I remember a little about the legend :s

However I still look forward to the month of the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This day is celebrated by the sharing of moon cakes and watching of the moon while uniting with friends and family. Although I don't remember ever watching the moon, there was always a lot of moon cake making and sharing happening around this time at home and LOVE IT <3

Last year, I made the "modern", snow skin moon cakes for the first time. Traditional moon cakes have sweet red bean paste or lotus bean paste or mixed nut filling with a baked wheat pastry. Snow skin moon cakes are a made with a no-bake cooked glutinous rice flour pastry. You can get an array of different flavored pastry and fillings. From sesame, green tea, strawberry, mango, chocolate, red bean, etc etc...

This year I replaced the usual sugars and oils for healthier sugars and oils - (and they were a success - yay!):
vegetable oil and shortening --> coconut oil
caster sugar --> coconut sugar
icing sugar --> powdered stevia

Since I made my own filling the moon cake making process was a long process and I don't like spending a lot of time in the kitchen at once so I split up the process! The1st day I made the filling and the second the I did the rest.

So here is the recipe for these gorgeously sweet snow skin moon cakes:


Chocolate Red Bean Snow Skin Moon Cakes:
(makes 27 medium sized moon cakes)


Chocolate Red Bean Filling:
You can buy pre-made red bean or lotus paste at asian grocery stores OR you can make your own (esp if you want a healthier paste).

Ingredients:
750g Red bean
2 C coconut sugar
1 C coconut oil (melted)
Chocolate - 150g coconut oil
                 - 1 C cocoa powder                OR      220g dark chocolate
                 - 1/2 C honey

Directions:

1) Soak the red beans in water for 2 hours











2) cook the read bean in a rice cooker or slow cooker with water for an hour or until soft and drain water out

3) Process the beans until a smooth paste forms



   










4) Cook the bean paste with the coconut sugar and 1C coconut oil in a frying pan on low heat
     - stir continuously until the water has evaporated and paste is thick (not runny)
     - set aside













5) Melt 150g coconut oil and let cool before mixing in honey and cocoa powder OR melt the dark chocolate
6) Mix chocolate in with paste














7) Weigh out 80g of paste and roll into a ball
   - set the balls aside

















Snow Skin Pastry:
Ingredients:
300g cooked glutinous rice flour
270g stevia powder
90g coconut oil (melted and cooled)
150g filtered water

Pandan flavoring
Cocoa

Directions:

1) Mix flour, stevia and coconut oil
2) Slowly add in water while gently kneading mixture into a dough



 3) Divide the dough evenly into the number of different flavored pastries you are making (unless you are having one flavor) - I made a plain, chocolate and pandan flavour so I divided the dough into 3
4) Add the flavouring/colouring into the dough and knead in well- with the chocolate dough I had to add a bit more water as the cocoa powder dried out the dough


Assembling and Molding the Moon Cake:
1) Weigh out 30g of dough and roll into a ball
2) Flatten into a circle and roll it out with a rolling pin till it is of a size that fits the ball of filling with about 3 cm of pastry left around the filling

3) With one hand cupping the pastry and ball and the other with the fingers putting pressure on the filling, push and move the pastry so that it covers the filling and enclose it

4) Roll it into a smooth ball

5) Cover ball with cooked glutinous rice flour
6) Place the ball in the moon cake mold (with the smooth side facing the mold print) and press into the mold

 

 8) Release from mold (if you are using the old-school wooden molds this will involve banging the mold onto a surface or if you are using a plastic mold with a spring this will involve pushing the moon cake out with a spring device).

YAY! Moon cake success. Enjoy the moon cakes and the sweetness of sharing and uniting with your friends and family.

Happy "Moon Cake" Festival <3