This custard snowskin mooncake 奶油冰皮月饼 is an absolute gem of a recipe to have up your sleeve. Although it is supposed to be eaten during the mid-autumn festival, I think this is too good to have just once a year. It is the perfect dessert to have throughout the year, especially for where I am from, where it’s hot and humid all year round. Lightly sweet, creamy and milky custard encased in a chewy soft dough served chilled – nothing better.

The custard filling is similar to what you’d find in Chinese pastries or dim sum such as 奶皇包 nai wong bao. If you love those, you have to give this a go!

There are two methods of making Snowskin Mooncakes:

1) Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour / Gao Fen Method

Gao fen 糕粉 is cooked glutinous rice flour which can be consumed raw. Snowskin mooncake recipes made using gao fen requires lesser ingredients and lesser steps as well.

Gao Fen is a very light flour that tastes fragrant. It is recommended to use store bought gao fen where possible as homemade ones may not yield the same fragrance. It may also have an unpleasant raw taste if not cooked through properly.

You should be able to find it in local bakery supply stores. If you can’t get your hands on gao fen, you can make your own by sifting raw glutinous rice flour and steam on high heat for about 45 minutes until cooked. Sift the cooked glutinous rice flour again when you want to use it as per recipe below.

2) Mochi Dough Method

The mochi dough method on the other hand uses a blend of glutinous rice flour, rice flour, and wheat starch. The flour mixture is mixed in with the liquid, then the mixture will need to be steamed to yield a cooked dough. This method requires more steps and may yield snowskin dough that is not as fragrant as the gao fen method.

The recipe below uses the former gao fen method – as I prefer the more fragrant snow skin and of course the convenience of lesser steps.

Start by Preparing the Custard Filling

The workflow starts out with preparing the custard filling as we would need to chill the custard to allow it to harden a little so that it will be much easier to handle and shape.

You’d firstly need to beat the butter and sugar until it turns pale, light in texture and doubled in size. Ensure to add eggs one at a time, and do not worry if the mixture starts to split. The mixture will be fine after you add the dry ingredients (milk powder and wheat starch) in. If you do not have wheat starch, it is fine to substitute with corn starch with the same ratio.

When cooking the custard over a double boiler, the mixture will look runny at first but it will thicken gradually. Ensure to stir the custard constantly whilst it is cooking. When the custard mixture no longer sticks to the back of your spatula, it is good to go.

Wrap the custard in cling wrap, and let it cool in the fridge. You could also use this same custard filling recipe to make this cendol gula melaka jelly mooncake with custard yolk.

What are the Ingredients for the Snowskin?

As shown above, 4 ingredients is all you will need; using either 170g of plain drinking water or fresh milk to make a basic plain snowskin. If you wish to alter the colour or taste, you can add:

2 tsp of natural flavouring powder (such as blue pea powder, pink pitaya powder or matcha like I did here in a previous post)
1-2 drops of extract/colouring (such as pandan extract for a green mooncake or rose extract with red colouring)

You would want a nice ratio of thin skin to filling. So if possible, try not to just eyeball it and use a weighing scale instead to measure out the portions.

For this recipe, I used 30 grams of dough and 20 grams of filling. You could also adjust the recipe to make 25g of filling and dough but I prefer a larger dough, so it’s easier to assemble the mooncakes.

With 30g of dough, there will be a thicker layer of dough that will form where you will seal the seam. If you prefer a thinner and more even dough to filling ratio, what you can do is to pinch off a bit of dough before shaping with the mould. That way it will make a 45g mooncake (25g dough + 20g filling).

Shaping your Custard Snowskin Mooncakes

To shape, flatten each piece of dough either with a rolling pin or your palms. When rolling out the dough, you would want to ensure that the middle is thicker and the sides are thinner. Ensure to also lightly dust your work surface with some gao fen, but if you find the dough too sticky, you could also put on a pair of plastic gloves.

Before you press the dough into the mooncake mould, dust with some gao fen (or you could also use icing sugar) so the snowskin dough does not stick to the mould. Repeat for each dough. Do not use any other types of flour for dusting as we do not want the mooncakes to taste raw. Then gently press to shape, so as not to crush the mooncake.

It is best to store the mooncakes in an air-tight container, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving for optimum yumminess! These snowskin mooncakes are best consumed within 3 days.

Step-by-Step Video Guide

This recipe was the result of my collaboration with a Malaysian Chinese language newspaper, China Press and Fernleaf – which I am re-sharing here with the recipe in English. You can watch the step by step instructions in Mandarin in this video below or scroll down for full recipe in English:

Print Recipe

Custard Snowskin Mooncake 奶油冰皮月饼

Lightly sweet, creamy and milky custard encased in a chewy, soft dough that is served chilled. This makes an absolute gem of a recipe to have up your sleeve, not only during Mid-Autumn Festival.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: Custard, Mooncake, Mooncakes, Snowskin Mooncake

Servings: 10 x 50g mooncakes

Ingredients

Custard Filling

50 g unsalted butter softened
30 g castor sugar
2 eggs
40 g milk powder
20 g wheat starch or corn starch

Snowskin

170 g drinking water
3 tbsp milk powder
100 g gao fen/koh fun *see notes
40 g icing sugar
20 g shortening

To Assemble

1 mooncake mould (50g)
20 g gao fen/koh fun

Instructions

To Make Custard

Fill a double boiler with water, and bring water to a boil while you prepare custard mixture.
Cream butter and sugar until light and doubled.
Add egg and mix until well incorporated. The mixture will look like it is splitting but don’t worry, it will be fine after adding in the dry ingredients.
Add in milk powder and wheat/corn starch, then mix to combine.
Transfer mixture to a stainless steel bowl, and place onto double-boiler. Reduce to medium heat, and start whisking until mixture is smooth.
Cook on top of double boiler, stirring constantly with spatula until mixture no longer sticks to the back of the spatula. When the custard filling is cooked – it is solid and firmer in texture. Remove from stove.
Cover with layer of cling wrap and chill custard in fridge to set.
Remove custard from fridge and divide into 10 x 20g portions. Shape into round balls. Cover with cling wrap and let rest in fridge whilst you prepare your snow skin dough.

To Make Snowskin Dough

Stir milk powder into drinking water until dissolved, then set aside in the refrigerator to cool down.
[CONVENTIONAL METHOD] Sift gao fen and icing sugar together into a clean bowl then mix evenly using whisk. Rub shortening into flour mixture using your hands. Add in cooled milk mixture gradually (depending on your flour absorbency, you may require a lesser amount between 140-170g) and mix using a spatula until dough forms. Then knead dough for several minutes to combine.
[THERMOMIX METHOD] Place gao fen and icing sugar into mixing bowl then blend on Turbo/2 seconds. Add shortening, and knead 30 seconds. Set to 1.5 minutes of kneading, and gradually add in cooled milk mixture on to the lid (depending on your flour absorbency, you may require a lesser amount between 140-170g) and allow to drip in. Allow the dough to form into a big ball.
Flour your work station with gao fen. Divide the dough into 10 x 30g portions then roll each portion into round ball.

To Assemble

Flatten each dough ball, either with a rolling pin or your palms, into a thin circle. You would want the centre to be thicker, and the sides to be thinner.
Place custard ball in the middle and wrap in snowskin dough then pinch to seal the seams. Roll into a ball.
Dust either the mooncake mould or the dough ball with gao fen. Press the dough firmly into the mould, and push the level to release mooncake from mould.
Store mooncakes in a single layer, in an air-tight container, and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours or overnight and serve chilled! These snowskin mooncakes are best consumed within 3 days.

Notes

What is gao fen / koh fun?

Gao fen 糕粉 is cooked glutinous rice flour which you should be able to find in local bakery supply stores. If you are not able to source for this ingredient, you can make your own by sifting raw glutinous rice flour and steam on high heat for about 45 minutes until cooked. You will need to sift the cooked glutinous rice flour again when you want to use, as per recipe above.

If you enjoyed this recipe, you may also want to try this Durian Snowskin Mooncake.

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