Flaky Pork Floss Mooncakes

Flaky pastry with sweet lotus paste balanced with salty pork floss.

My holidays are coming to an end, sadly. I guess I've had a good time- other than burying myself in piles of notes, I've baked and cooked too, so I'm happy :) And I've made the usual mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival- the traditional baked ones, Snowskin pandan ones, plus 4 other truffle filled mooncakes: Dark Chocolate Earl Grey Lavender, White Chocolate Passionfruit, Matcha and Houjicha, and Cempedak. The matcha and cempedak ones are new flavours I've tried this year- they're nice but I think I still like the usual earl grey and Passionfruit ones. And I made custard mooncakes too! I've always loved Hong Kong's Penisula Custard Mooncakes, but they're always really expensive so I decided to make them at home this year. They're really good fresh, but the flavour and texture really start to wear down after a few days so it's a good idea to keep them in the fridge and reheat them when you want to have them! But I guess they did satisfy my cravings :) Now I've got a whole lot of custard powder in the fridge- hmm need to think of new things to make with it!

I never really knew making flaky pastry was so easy- I had some leftover shortening from making my Snowskin mooncakes so I used them in this pastry, and it came out beautifully. It's actually really easy to work with- can't wait to explore other uses for this flaky pastry! It's not as crisp as I would've liked though, maybe a slightly longer bake or a higher temperature would crisp them up nicely.

Flaky Pork Floss Mooncakes

Makes 5 mooncakes

30g pork floss

200g lotus paste

Water dough:

65g plain flour

30g shortening

30g water

Oil dough:

65g plain flour

30g shortening

Make the water dough: Rub the shortening into the plain flour, add the water and knead till smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest at least 20 minutes, but ideally 1 hour.

Make oil dough: mix flour and shortening till combined into a dough.

Divide the lotus paste into 5 portions (40g each), and wrap the pork floss in it.

Divide each dough into 5 portions each.

Wrap the oil dough with the water dough and roll into a ball. Flatten and roll out into an oval.

Roll up like a Swiss roll, then flatten again to a long thin oval. Roll up like a Swiss roll.

Flatten the dough (with the swirled sides and the 2 ends of the dough) then wrap the lotus paste in it. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake 190 degrees Celsius for 20 mintues, or until a deep golden brown.