The main ingredient to make the ping pei (cold skin) is the 'koh fun' which is fried glutinous rice flour. After lengthy discussions and questions among friends as to how the packing of 'koh fun' looks like, it is not found in the biggest asian store here. For curiousity sake, decided to go ahead and make some from plain glutinous rice flour. The filling is tau sar and the recipe is Jo's recipe for carrot ping pei mooncake but i changed it to green tea. The skin is green and has no distinctive tea taste as i do not have green tea essence and this green tea powder that i used is from Korea and meant for drinking.
Ingredients:
Ping Pei Skin:
160g icing sugar, sifted
25g shortening
125g water mix with 1 tsp of green tea powder, strain)
1/2 tsp salt
50g evaporated milk
110g Koh Fun (cooked glutinous flour - method for homemade is at bottom of page), sifted twice
50g cornflour, sifted twice
Paste:
1kg tau sar paste
Method:
To prepare Ping Pei skin:
Rub shortening into icing sugar until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs.
Stir green tea into icing sugar mixture and mix well with a spatula.
Add in evaporated milk, salt, Koh Fun and cornflour. Mix to a soft and smooth dough and stand it for 10 minutes.
Cook in the microwave on high 1 min at a time until dough is cooked and stir after every minute.
Let dough cool before moulding into mooncakes
To prepare mooncake paste:
Using small mooncake moulds, divide ping pei dough to 15g - 25f(depending on your preference of whether a thicker skin is desired).
Lightly flour your hands with koh fun. Knead each portion until it is not sticky
Roll into a ball .
Divide tau sar paste into 45 - 50 gm(the square mould need slightly more) Knead each portion a little and form each into a ball .
Lightly flour (using koh fun) your hands. Flatten a ping pei dough on your palm to be a 2-inch circle. Press to make the edges thinner than the central part . Place a ball of paste. Start pushing the paste against the dough . As you push the paste, the dough will start enlarging . Wrap up the mooncake. Roll into a ball .
Lightly flour the mooncake mould. Place mooncake, seam side up, in mould. Flatten mooncake to conform to shape of mould. Bang upper, lower, left and right sides of mould to dislodge the mooncake .
Repeat to shape remaining mooncakes.
Refrigerate ping pei mooncakes for at least 1 hour before serving.
HOMEMADE 'KOH FUN'
Steam the plain glutinous rice flour for 1/2 hour.
Remove and put in a microwable glass bowl which has been lined with greaseproof paper.
Microwave on high 1 minute at a time until rice is slightly brown(time depends on the amount of rice flour)
Serves
Very pretty green tea mooncakes! Seem like quite a bit of work.
ReplyDeleteLily, your mooncakes look GREAT. So pretty. I love the patterns on them. Did your family enjoy them? _K
ReplyDeleteLily
ReplyDeleteMay I know why you must steam the glutinous flour before 'cooking' it in microwave? I didn't manage to get that koh fun, so I might hv to make it myself :(
janny
ReplyDeletethe precedure is at bottom of page. ask chan where he got his koh fun as he has shown me the same type that seadragon bought and you all are in melbourne. It is quite easy to make it yourself and this recipe is a keeper. the skin remained soft after weeks in the fridge. i did not want to open a can of evaporated milk so once i sub with coconut cream and another time i used coffee mate
Lily,
ReplyDeleteYour mooncakes are very pretty. I am looking for the smaller mooncake molds that you used. Where can I find them?
Gin
Gin
ReplyDeletei brought my small mooncake mould from malaysia when i came here. which part of the world are you in?
Hi Lily,
ReplyDeleteHow long can the "koh fun" keep if I want to make in bulk?
Thank you
Butler
Hi Lily,
ReplyDeleteHow long can the "koh fun" keep if I want to make them in bulk?
By the way,your Siow Bao recipe was very good.It was delicious and definitely worth the effort
butler
ReplyDeletemy leftover is still good and it is kept in the pantry.
as long as they are kept dry, they should keep
hi lily,
ReplyDeleteyour mooncake looks very delicious. btw, is there any substitute for shortening? butter?
delia
ReplyDeleteshortening is used as butter is too strong a flavor and might crash with the green tea and if you need to make the classic snow white, butter will give it a tinge and yellow.
Lily,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog when I was searching how to make Asian buns, like the green onion buns etc.. I love your mooncake, and I would love to know where can I find icing sugar. Is it the same as powdered sugar? Thank you in advance!!
Lily, I found your blog when I was searching for Asian buns recipe, like pizza bread that we find from a lot of deli in Msia. I love your blog, thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteI have a few questions.
1. What is icing sugar? is it the same as powdered sugar?
2. Where can I get the tau sar paste?
also, do you have any ideas where I can get the recipes for Asian buns? Thank you so much..
anonymous
ReplyDeleteyes, icing sugar is powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar
anonymous
ReplyDeletesorry i missed answering the other 2 questions.
tau sar paste can be found in Bake with Yen, chang Tung or chun yip.
Google for asian buns and i am sure you will get good results.
Hi Lily
ReplyDeleteI am in Vancouver and could not find the Koh Fun so I am intending to make my own and being an amateur, I have a couple of questions:
1)Why the glutinous flour needs to be steamed and then cooked in the microwave? (Will steaming not make it soggy or sticky?)
2) How long can snowskin mooncake keep in the fridge?
Thank you. Look forward to your reply.
Priscilla
priscilla
ReplyDeletethe flour will not be soggy, steaming is the ensure that it is thoroughly cooked and then drying it out in the microwave.
the cake must be very kept in an airtight container and it will keep in the fridge for at least a week, perhaps longer
Lily, thanks for your prompt reply. I will steam my glutinous flour and then microwave it.
ReplyDeleteLily, I tried this recipe but the dough came out too hard. I got a pack which says "gao fen" on the package. Do I still have to steam & microwave it? I tried steaming the flour but it became very hard like biscuit. Any idea what went wrong? Thanks in advance
ReplyDeleteanonymous
ReplyDeleteif it says gao fen then it is already toasted and cooked. just use it straight from the packet.
Aunty Lily,
ReplyDeleteI would like to try your recipe. But I am a student here in Texas, I do not have tools to convert the measurements to 'cups' unit. I only use 'cups' unit. And your recipe calls for both liquids and solids in grams or kilograms. Can you advice? Thanks
Lynn
Hi Lily, thanks for your explanation on the icing sugar. I have few more questions.
ReplyDelete1. After it's formed as a dough, you said to put into the microwave, how do I know if it's cook, and how do you stir it if it's a dough?
2. I've bought lotus paste in a can and bean paste in package. Do I still need to cook the lotus paste coz it looks pretty watery?
3. What is high protein flour? is it the same as high gluten flour? this is for the polo buns recipe.
again, thank you sooo much..
anonymous
ReplyDeleteit will be a very soft dough, more a thick batter.
if he canned`paste is watery, you would have to cook until very stiff and thick
high protien flour is bread flour and in chinese is called high gluten flour - koh khan fun
Cook in the microwave on high 1 min at a time until dough is cooked and stir after every minute.
ReplyDelete---> how do you know when the dough is cooked?
anonymous
ReplyDeletethe dough will turn opague when it is cooked with no traces of white
Hi Lily, do you know the ingredients for durian mooncake (as per ping peh skin)? It would be great to serve the durian ping peh frozen, like ice cream moon cake.
ReplyDeletethanks,
Loretta
anonymous
ReplyDeletei have heard of durian filling for mooncakes but for the ping peh skin i have not. You can always try adding some durian flesh to the skin ingredients. Play with your food and give me a feedback
Steam the plain glutinous rice flour for 1/2 hour. Please, tell more about this. Flour is very fine, if we steam it, it becomes wet and stick together. Koh fun is fried glutinous rice flour, isn't? Besides the steam technique, could you show me how to make fried glutinous rice flour, I want to make banh deo, but I cannot find it in my area. Thank you very much for your kindness. Your website is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteanonymous
ReplyDeletesteaming the glutinous rice flour is to cook the flour and drying/roasting in the microwave. it will not be wet and stick together if you do not condensation drip down - cover the lid with a tea towel.
Hi Lily,
ReplyDeletejust want to ask, can the steamed glutinous rice flour be pan fried on a non-stick pan rather than to be roasted in the microwave? Or maybe just dry it up in the oven for few minutes till it turn brown?
anonymous
ReplyDeleteyes, you can pan-fry or bake the steamed glutinous rice flour in the oven
Hello Lily,I was introduced to your blog by Peilin. We were shopping this afternoon and saw Ko Fun on sale(Mooncake festival is round the corner) - she has suggested me to check your post. I have never made moon cake before and I shall look forward to try your recipe very soon. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHello Lily, I notice that there are some recipes that do not call for cooking the dough. The recipes are quite similar to what you have described. I am wondering if they are referring to the same Koh Fun or there is a different type of Koh Fun that does not require cooking? Hope you can enlighten me. Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteshirley
ReplyDeleteif you have purchased koh fun, then it is already cooked. i was not able to get koh fun so i have to cooked glutinous rice flour to make koh fun
Thank you, Lily. I will try it out and let you know how it turns out.
ReplyDeletehi Lily, can I replace shortening with butter or margarine, I can't find shortening here.
ReplyDeletesuetyin
ReplyDeleteof course you can replace shortening with butter or margarine.
Lily, help!! I tried to make Bing Pei, and cooked my own glutinous rice flour. I cooked it in the microwave, one minute at a time, for 3 minutes (for 300g. flour). It had just all turned color, so I thought it was done. However, when I added the liquid, it was DARK brown, and tasted awful. What is it supposed to look like when it's done "cooking" in the microwave??!
ReplyDelete(And happy Mid-Autumn Festival!!!)
aunt lolo
ReplyDeletei think your wattage for the microwave must be very high and it burned the glutinous flour. Cooking in the microwave is to dry out the flour as it has already been cooked after steaming. It should be creamy in color. The flour has to be stirred after every cycle of cooking in the microwave