Teochew Spiral Yam Mooncake (千层芋泥酥）
INTRODUCTION
My mooncake series is toward the end this year and I felt that the mooncake series is not complete without the so called Teochew Spiral Yam mooncake.
This is a mooncake that are rather common in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in recent years. I have never heard about it when I was a kid ages ago. I have never heard about it when I stationed in China years ago… and in PRC’s recipe website, you can hardly find any recipes on this mooncake… In PRC’s mooncake trading website in the Chaozhou area, this is not a common item either….
Hmmm, why it become popular in Malaysia and Singapore is unknown.. Teochew dialect is famous for its sweet desserts – Yam Paste or Orni and it is well liked by the other dialects as well.. Teochew traditional mooncake is characterized by its flaky crust and that is the crust used for this mooncake. Instead of a flat disc shape, it was shaped round and playing with the pattern of two dough of different oil contents.. Putting these two together is not a bad combination at all.
Putting that aside, for foodies who like yam or taro, this is a mooncake that should not miss. It is full of yam fragrance and goes well with the aromatic flaky crust..
This is the bake version though some recipe called for deep frying. Preparation is not very difficult but a bit laborious and I am sure you will not complain about the hard work when you took the first bite.
WHAT IS REQUIRED
Recipe adapted from : Teochew Spiral Yam Mooncakes
Servings: Prepare about 12 spiral yam mooncakes
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500 grams of yam （芋头）- de-skin and cut into big slices
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150 grams of castor sugar (细砂糖）
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80 grams of cooking oil （食用油）
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30 grams of wheat starch (澄粉）
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12 salted egg yolks （咸蛋黄）
Oil Dough
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180 grams of plain flour （普通面粉）
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100 grams of vegetable shortening or peanut oil or other fats (白油, 花生油或其他油）
Water dough:
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200 grams of plain flour （普通面粉）
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50 grams of vegetable shortening or peanut oil or other fats (白油，花生油或其他油）
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30 grams of castor sugar （细砂糖）
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100 grams of plain water (白水）
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1/2 teaspoon of vinegar (白醋）
Note: For this illustration, I have used vegetable shortening for the oil dough and peanut oil for the water dough. I have only prepare 4 with egg yolks and the illustration size is much bigger than the recipe size and with much thinner crust. This recipe yields 12 mooncakes with salted egg yolks, but you can also follow the original recipe of preparing 16 mooncakes without salted egg yolks.
STEPS OF PREPARATION
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Steam the cut yam or taro until soft. It will take about 15 minutes but it also depends on your yam quality. Some are harder to steam than the others. While the steamed yam is still hot, transfer to a big bowl, add wheat starch, castor sugar and half of the cooking oil. Mash until as fine as possible. If your taro is very hard and refuse to become soft, use a food processor to blend until puree form.
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In a wok or frying pan, put the other half of the cooking oil, stir fry the yam paste under low to medium heat until it dries up. In this process, you will see the colour changes to a darker shade. If you prefer, you can sauté some shallots first before you add the yam paste. Once done, set aside for cooling.
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Microwave the salted egg yolk for 20 seconds or steam until it is cooked.
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Preheat the oven to 170 degree Celsius.
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Divide the cooled yam paste into 12 equal portions. Take one portion, shape in round, flatten it, put an egg yolk on top of the yam paste, seal the edges, shape round again and set aside for later wrapping.
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Put all the water dough ingredients in a big mixing bowl, stir and knead until well mixed. Divide into 3 equal portions. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
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Put all the oil dough ingredients in a big mixing bowl, stir and knead until well mixed. Divide into 3 equal portions. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
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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.
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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. Cut the dough in 4 equal portions (here after called “roll dough”). Do the same for the other 2 portions and finally, you shall have 3×4 = 12 roll dough.
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Take a portion of the roll dough, with the spiral design facing you, use a rolling pin to roll it flat, put a yam paste on the centre of the spiral design, seal the edges, shape it as round as possible and bake in the pre-heated oven of 170 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes or until your desired colour tone. Alternatively, you can deep fry the mooncake under medium heat until golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into pieces for serving.
CONCLUSION
Hmmm, I hope I am clear in telling you about how to shape this “Jupiter” mooncake as my kids called it.. Haha. Well, possibly you want to look at this video for a clearer illustration on the proper procedures of shaping the mooncake.
Just remember, rolling must be as thin as possible, shaping must be as evenly and as round as possible (before wrapping) and your filling must be at the centre of the spiral design. Always choose the most beautiful centre design to face out and when you seal, seal it as evenly and as round as possible……..
Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have nice day.
This recipe was included in Page 11-13 of the “Easy Mooncake Recipes E-book”. For more mooncake recipes, you can have a copy of “Easy mooncake recipes – A step by step guide” that was packed with 20 recipes, 45 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD4.00. The recipes covered various recipes from durian mooncake, traditional baked mooncake and also the less common Teochew mooncake . You can purchase by clicking the link above.You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.
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Hi Ken,the spiral very pretty,i made this last year,think will try again this year 🙂
Hi Ken, Your spiral mooncakes looks good. Something that I would like to try. Can I use some other fillings instead of the yam paste filling.
Kimmy, sure. There is no standards that require filling must be yam. Haha . Do feel free to change those that suit your taste buds
This is just skill. 100% admiration!
Hi, Kenneth, beautiful moon cake. I tried today. The oil dough was very sticky. It can’t be kneaded into a ball. Did I do it correctly?
After baking, I noticed that there are some powdery white stuff on my baked moon cake. When you touched it, it was quite oily and it sticked to the fingers. Is it because the moon cakes were under baked? I have baked it for almost 50 minutes for a tray of 19 mooncakes. The size of the yam filling was 30 g and dough 30 g. Thanks!
it is a bit sticky for the oil dough. But after you put in with the water dough, it should be spread out and ok to handle. The powdery white staff possibly is the uneven mixing of your oil dough. It is puzzling why the baking time is so long. It should not be that long but as long as it is baked, it should be ok.
Joanne, I saw other chef taught to make Chinese Pastry, we have to put the oil dough in the fridge to chill so that it will be harden a bit, easier to roll. If deep fried, it will be much prettier as that is meant for Deep Fry. If Deep fry MUST place the mooncakes onto a drainer then place them into hot oil and once almost golden brown, remove the drainer so that all the mooncakes will not break.
Thanks Kenneth, for sharing my beloved mooncake. I hunted high and low in Pg, couldn’t find it until I saw it in 225, Burma Rd, made by Sin Joo Heong , Teluk Intan cookies shop. Will try it out months later as I have a lot of mooncakes now.
Thanks for sharing
Hi Ken,
This is one of my favorite Mooncake.
You made them so well. Love the spiral look!
Thanks for sharing this to LTU!
mui
Thanks for dropping by! much appreciated for your kind words.
Hi i have used peanut oil for the oil dough and the oil dough turn out watery + sticky. Is this normal? (It cannot be shape into a ball)
Oil dough are like that . You can add a bit of flour
Hi, may i ask can the wheat flour be replace by any other flour? Can the yam be boiled instead of steam? Thanks.
I so not think so for both question
noted with thanks! 🙂
Hi I’m gonna try this recipe tomorrow!
I’m gonna use premade filling for this without any yolks.
What should the ratio of the skin to filling be?
How many grams of filling should I use per ball?
Thanks =)
Can just forget about the yolk and wrap as it is
Hi Kenneth, cooking oil can be replaced with canola oil? Other fats include salted/unsalted butter or canola oil?
this looks awesome! thanks so much! May i know if these can be made in advance & frozen unbaked? So i can have them baked and ready nearer to the mid autumn fest. =p
i would not advice so and I have never heard of ppl doing this. What I would advise is you baked it, store in the fridge and when it turn soggy near the festival, send back to the oven and rebake it at low temperature until crispy. It will turn crispy again. Better keep a cooked mooncake rather pre-prepared dough.
Thanks so much for the reply & post! =) will definitely be trying it out for this year’s mid autumn fest!
Hi Kenneth,
I’ve tried baking this mooncake today. Baked for 20 – 25 mins at 170 degrees but it doesn’t brown at all. Hence I bake for another 10 mins and the top burst. Could you advise what went wrong?
I also tried baking at 160 degrees fan mode but it’s the same results. Taste wise is great, pls help me improve on my mooncake outlook.
Tks
At time, it do influenced by the type of fats used. Next time, if you are sure that it is bake, you can on the top grilled mode for coloring purposes. At time I do have this problem
Tks 🙂
Hi Kennth:
May i know where i buy these moonlike in PJ or KL area?
May i know where i can buy these mooncake in PJ or KL area?
I am in Singapore and I am sorry I do not know when to buy in PJ and KL
Hi Kenneth,
I wanna try making this tonight with ready made yam paste. May I know how much water dough, oil dough in yam paste should I put for 1 mooncake? Thank you in advance!
Sorry for the late reply. If you are following my recipes, just divide it into the number of portions equally and i remember is 4