INTRODUCTION

Friends are asking me what to do with the fried glutinous rice flour (gao fen 糕粉） left after the preparation of snow skin moon cake.. The first thing that comes into my mind is one category of Chinese flaky skin biscuits  with gooey fillings since gao fen is the main ingredient  that create the sticky gooey fillings..

The biscuits that come into my mind are the famous Hong Kong Wife biscuits (老婆饼, Taiwanese Sun biscuits (太阳饼), local Pong Pia (蓬饼 / 碰饼） and the Perak famous Horseshoe Biscuits (马蹄饼) 

I wanted to prepare my childhood biscuit – Pong Pia. When I search for recipe in the internet, none appeared but it directed me to another Chinese biscuits, Sun biscuits. I knew there are minor differences in the fillings between the two since I have tasted both. Sun biscuit filling is less sticky and more creamy as butter and plain flour were used. However, Pong Pia filling is slightly more sticky since it uses mostly gao fen.

I prepared the biscuits and I  am happy with the biscuit  as the taste is very much the same as the Pong Pia except the slightest differences discussed above. 

After I posted the Sun Biscuit photo in Facebook, Group members are asking me the differences between horseshoe biscuit and wife biscuits… On the same day, I prepared the horseshoe biscuits and wife biscuits. In the next two posts, I will share the recipes of these two biscuits and you can see how similar are there in terms of preparations of ingredients.

For traditional Chinese biscuits, most will call for the use of lard or recently vegetable shortening, however, for this recipe, i have used normal cooking oil to substitute and I personally found that the texture is not being compromise much.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: 太阳饼

Servings: 10 Biscuits

Water Dough

• 120 grams of plain flour
• 15 grams of castor sugar
• 40 grams of lard or cooking oil or vegetable shortening
• 50 grams of plain water
• 1/2 teaspoon of maltose

• 80 grams of plain flour
• 40 grams of lard or cooking oil or vegetable shortening

Fillings

• 80 grams of icing sugar
• 20 grams of maltose
• 15 grams of butter
• 25 grams of plain flour
• 8 grams or ml of water
• Pinches of salt

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius

• Put all the water dough ingredients in a bowl, stir and knead until it form a smooth pliable dough. Let it rest for 15 minutes.. Weigh the dough and divide into 10 equal portions. Set aside.
• Put all the oil dough ingredients in a bowl, stir until well combine and smooth. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Weigh the dough and divide into 10 equal portions. Set aside.

• Put all the fillings ingredients in a bowl, stir until well combine and smooth. Weigh the fillings and divide into 10 equal portions. Set aside.

• Take one portion of water dough, shape round, flatten it , put a portion of oil  dough on top of the water dough, seal it and shape it round. Use a rolling pin to roll the ball into a rectangular shape as evenly and as thin as possible. Roll it up like you are preparing Swiss roll. Turn the “Swiss roll” direction with the shorter side pointing at you. Use a rolling pin to roll it again in a rectangular shape as evenly and as thin as possible. Roll it up again like you are preparing Swiss roll.

• Use the rolling pin to flatten it. Put a filling on top of the rolled dough, seal the edges, shape it round and use the rolling pin to lightly flatten it so that it looks like a disc shape. Bake in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius for 10-12 minutes.

• Make sure the dough is properly wrapped and baking time is as per suggested to avoid gooey sticky hot fillings leak out from the biscuit.

CONCLUSION

This is the Sun biscuit but the filling is slightly different from the Pong Piah commonly found in Singapore and Malaysia that uses cooked glutinous rice flour or Gao Fen. If I managed to find a recipe that uses Gao Fen for the filling, I will update the recipe to make the post more complete.. Do watch out for the next two post and I will share Wife biscuits and horseshoe biscuits.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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