Strawberry Matcha Snow Skin Mooncakes

It's almost Chinese or Lunar New Year and that means it is time for mooncakes! Snow skin mooncakes are a popular modern mooncake and alternative to the very rich traditional mooncakes. These snow skin mooncakes are made with a matcha skin filled with a whole strawberry and cream filling! If you love strawberry matcha lattes you will love these snow skin mooncakes!

While I like traditional mooncakes having grown up eating them, I do find that they're dense and a bit dry. Mr NQN didn't grow up eating them and he doesn't like them at all. But we both love snow skin mooncakes, which are basically mochi. I love the combination of matcha mochi and a cheesecake style cream filling with a whole strawberry in the centre.

Tips For Making Snow Skin Mooncakes

1 - You will need mochiko or glutinous rice flour, not regular rice flour for snow skin mooncakes. This can be bought at Asian grocery stores.

2 - You can also buy mooncake molds from Asian grocery stores, especially around this time of the year or on Amazon here. I used 75g/2.6oz molds. They can be either wooden molds or plastic spring molds. I find the plastic spring ones easier to use as snow skin or mochi dough can be sticky.

3- I use toasted mochiko or glutinous rice flour to dust the cakes. Some people use cornflour/fine cornstarch but I prefer the taste of the toasted mochiko or glutinous rice flour.

4 - Look for small strawberries that will fit into your mooncake molds.

5 - I use a 3/4oz ice cream scoop for the filling. It makes things easier but you can also use a spoon or piping bag too to fill in the dough.

6- I don't recommend steaming or microwaving your mochi dough for moon cakes. While it produces a glossy dough, the stamped patterns are not as sharp.

7 - When you roll out the matcha dough try and roll the edges slightly thinner. This is because when you gather it up you want to avoid having a big lump of dough. When finishing up the mooncakes make sure to use extra toasted mochiko or glutinous rice flour on your fingers.

8 - If you want to make these completely vegan you can replace the cream filling with sweetened red bean paste called anko and replace the milk with coconut milk.

9 - Store pattern side up (obvs haha!) snow skin mooncakes in fridge for up to 2 or 3 days. They can also be frozen for up to 2-3 weeks.

Other Chinese New Year Desserts You Might Like:

I find these snow skin moon cakes incredibly addictive. I will eat one and because it has that lovely texture, I want to keep eating them. It's really a combination of creamy, fluffy, fruity and chewy and I love that heavenly combination of matcha and strawberry. Speaking of eating, for the last 2 months it has been a battle of the wills in our house. No not between Mr NQN and I but between us and Teddy Elliott. Tiny Teddy Elliott has been refusing to eat his dinner.

His younger brother Milo happily and heartily gobbles up his food but ever since we got back from Europe in November Teddy turns his nose up at his food or eats a tiny bit and leaves the rest. Mr NQN thinks something may have happened while we were away but who knows for sure.

A lot of people say that dogs (and kids) will eat when they're hungry and not to worry. This continued for a couple of months where Teddy would get fussier and then one day I had to admit that we were defeated. He was getting tinier and tinier and while he seemed fine with it, we weren't.

"You win Teddy, you have definitely won the stand off," I told him. And from then on we did give him his normal dog food because it has nutrients in it but we also add some lean pork mince and cooked grated carrot which we know he loves. If we give him 70% dog food, 30% mince he will know because he is a clever little boy but if we give him 60% dog food and 40% pork mince he will happily eat it. I'm sure that he is part dachshund (a notoriously stubborn dog breed) somewhere in that mix!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have any tips for a fussy dog? Have you ever tried snow skin mooncakes?

Snow Skin Mooncakes

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Print Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes plus freezing/cooling time of 1 hour

Cooking time: 10 minutes

For Filling

10x15g/0.5 small strawberries, hulled
20g/0.7ozs caster or superfine sugar
75g/2.6ozs cream cheese, cubed (full fat)
55g/2ozs icing or powdered sugar
180ml/6.3flozs double cream or thickened cream
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/3 teaspoon fine salt

For Mochi skins

30g/1oz mochiko or glutinous rice flour
1 cup/250ml/4flozs milk
150g/5.3ozs caster or superfine sugar
4 teaspoons coconut oil
170g/6ozs mochiko or glutinous rice flour
1 teaspoon matcha powder

You will also need some 75g/26oz mooncake moulds, either plastic spring molds or wooden molds (spring ones are very easy).

Step 1 - First wash and then hull the strawberries and make sure that they fit in your mold. Place them in a bowl and toss with the sugar and set aside. Place the cream cheese and sifted icing sugar into a mixer bowl with a paddle attachment. Beat until smooth on medium speed, around 1 minute. Then switch to a whisk attachment and add the cream. Whisk til soft peaks. Then take a silicon spatula and scrape up all of the cream cheese around the edge to incorporate into the cream. Add the vanilla and salt and whip cream until you get stiff peaks. It is ready when you can run a knife through the cream and the cut holds firm.

Step 2 -Line a baking tray with parchment. Take a 3/4oz ice cream scoop and scoop up some cream and place the sugar coated strawberry into the scoop pointy side first. Release onto the parchment and repeat using the rest of the filling and strawberries. Freeze for 60 minutes until the outside is hard.

Step 3 -While it is freezing make the mochi skin. In a dry non stick pan add the 30g/1oz of glutinous rice flour and toast the flour for 3-5 minutes on medium heat making sure that it doesn't burn. Place in a bowl. Take a large non stick chopping board and line it with parchment and then sprinkle a generous amount of the toasted flour all over it.

Step 4 - In a non stick saucepan (very important) add the milk and sugar and dissolve the sugar on low heat. Take the pan off the heat and add the coconut oil and then the flour and add it in using a whisk to prevent any lumps. Then return the pan back to low medium heat and start to cook the flour. It will go lumpy but don't worry, as long as you've whisked out the lumps before heating it will be fine. The watery dough will transform into a sticky, cohesive dough but it takes around 4-5 minutes to do this on low heat. I shape it into a square while it is in the pan.

Step 5 - Place the hot dough gently on the floured chopping board and cover with cling film and rest for 15 minutes. Then using food safe gloves knead in the matcha powder until you get a consistent green coloured dough . Allow the dough to cool completely at room temperature. The mochi skins must be completely cold.

Step 6 - Divide dough into 10 x 55g/1.9oz pieces of dough and roll into circles around 11cms/4.3 inches in diameter that are a bit thinner around the edges (like dumpling dough). Take now hard scoops of filling and place in the centre. Gather up the edges using lightly floured fingers and seal. Place smooth side against the stamp and press down firmly but gently. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.