Crispy Pastry (酥皮)

I now follow an annual tradition of making my own moon cake during Autumn Fall Festival. This year, I decided to try making it with the same crust as pineapple cake since I am a big fan of crispier and buttery crust.

Mooncakes

According to some folk tale, 朱元璋 and 劉伯溫 (famous Ming revolutionaries) used mooncakes to secretly distribute messages in an attempt to overthrow the Mongolian rulers during Yuan dynasty.

Paper back then must not have as much crap as they do today to be safe to stuff inside food… :)

see red bean paste filling for recipe on filling

Ingredients

  1. Take butter/ghee out to room temperature
  2. Beat butter/ghee together
  3. Gradually add sugar, cheese and milk powder
  4. Add the whole egg, then the extra yolk
  5. Slowly fold in flour (using spatula to avoid overmixing) Dough
  6. Divide the dough into small size balls
  7. Also divide the filling into small size balls Flatten Dough
  8. Ideal Ratio of filling to dough should be 0.8:1
  9. Flatten the dough and wrap around the filling Wrap Filling
  10. Roll into a ball
  11. Take a mold, dust generously with flour
  12. Press the dough ball (with filling) into the mold Mold
  13. Hit the mold on the side to loosen the pastry
  14. Bake 335°F for 10 min, flip, then another 10 min