Chocolate Snowskin Mooncakes with Custard Filling

I love to read. Have I said that before ? I'll read anything from the old tattered paperback I picked up in a secondhand bookstore in Thailand to the labels on the mustard in my fridge. Sometimes when I get bored brushing my teeth, I'll read what it says on my toothpaste.

So it wasn't a surprise that when I went to a huge bookstore that I haven't been to in a while, I managed to mentally list down a dozen books that I wanted in the first ten minutes.. And then that list went out of the window when my sister came to announce that the comic version of a video game I was playing was finally available. I grabbed the books and probably squealed some but they're mine now ! I may sound like a complete geek/bookworm/weirdo(?) but I've been waiting for those books since I was 13, mind you.

I've had my nose buried in those comics and a few books that I bought recently for the past few days. I only surfaced to make these mooncakes and even they require no baking. These mooncakes are linked to the Mooncake Festival that all Chinese celebrate - the mooncakes were used as a means of communication during a times of tyranny, if I'm not mistaken. There are two kinds too, baked and chilled. My sister loves the chilled one (as so I, but then again I love all kinds of moon cake) and since these days there are all kinds of flavours from tiramisu to bacon (!) mooncakes, it seemed completely normal to make a chocolate one. Besides, I've had this recipe bookmarked for quite a while now. 

And just for the record, Mooncake Festival is in September. I have really inappropriate timing.

I had a few issues with the recipe though. Maybe it was the ratio of skin to filling that I used, but I just couldn't get that tiny piece of skin to wrap around that enormous ball of filling properly, so I used a one to one ratio. Which of course, led to me having not enough skin to cover all the filling. Doesn't matter, they were both tasty and it didn't take long for my sister and me to nosh our way through. 

I might have steamed the filling too long too, since it wasn't exactly stirrable, more like a set custard.. Oops. I blame the comics.

Chocolate Snowskin Mooncakes with Custard Filling

Adapted from this site who got the skin recipe from here and the filling from here.

For the snowskin:

130ml water

70g sugar

50g dark chocolate, chopped

10g cocoa powder

10g chocolate paste (I had no idea what this was so I used chocolate emulco)

20g shortening

60g Koh fen

1. Heat the water and sugar until dissolved, then add the cocoa powder and chocolate paste. Mix well, then add the chocolate and stir to melt.

2. Put the Koh fen into a bowl and use your fingers to rub in the shortening until it resembled breadcrumbs. Slowly pour in the chocolate mixture until it comes together into a dough. You might not need all of the chocolate mixture so go slowly. Knead a little to combine then cover and rest for 1/2 hour.

For the custard filling:

5 eggs

160g sugar

120g butter

50g flour

40g cornflour

50g milk powder

50g custard powder

70g condensed milk

150g evaporated/coconut milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Cream the sugar and butter together until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well before adding the next egg. The mixture might look rather curdled but don't worry, it'll come together later.

2. Stir together the flour, cornflour, milk powder and custard powder. In another bowl, stir together the condensed milk and evaporated/coconut milk. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately with the milk mixture. Mix until smooth.

3. Pour the mixture into a nonstick pot and cook over medium heat until thick and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Strain the mixture into a bowl, then steam it over medium-high heat for 25-30 minutes, until set.

4. Stir it until it becomes a thick paste. Mine was rather solid after steaming (I might have steamed it a tad too long - don't make my mistake !) so I just kneaded it into balls. Leave to cool.

To assemble, use a 1:2 ratio, that is 25g of skin to 50g of filling. Flatten the skin and place a ball of the filling in the middle, the wrap the skin around it. Roll it in your hands to form a smooth ball, then press into mooncake molds to form the traditional mooncake shapes. Chill the mooncakes before serving.