What is snow skin mooncake made of?

Snow skin mooncake, snowy mooncake, ice skin mooncake or crystal mooncake is a Chinese food eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Snow skin mooncakes are a non-baked mooncake originating from Hong Kong. The snowskin mooncake is also found in Macau, Mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Although snow skin mooncakes are usually made and sold by bakeries, these mooncakes are not baked in ovens like traditional cakes. Further, unlike traditional mooncakes which are served at room temperature, snow skin mooncakes are typically eaten cold. The snow skin mooncake emerged in the 1960s. It was developed by a bakery in Hong Kong, because the traditional mooncakes were made with salted duck egg yolks and lotus seed paste, resulting in very high sugar and oil content.[5] Since many customers thought traditional mooncakes were an oily food, the bakery used fruit for filling and less oil to make a mooncake with less fat.[6] Another early pioneer of snow skin mooncakes is Poh Guan Cake House (宝源饼家) in Singapore.[4]

Snow skin mooncakes gradually become popular in the 1970s. At that time the snow skin mooncake was also called a "crystal mooncake" (水晶月饼).[7] The name "Bing Pei Yuet Beng" (冰皮月饼) appeared in advertisements in the early 1980s. The crust of snow skin mooncake is made of glutinous rice, which is frozen.[9] The snow skin mooncake is similar to mochi ice cream or yukimi daifuku, as both have glutinous rice crusts and have to be kept frozen. Snow skin mooncakes are typically white and are served cold, which is why they are named "snow skin". However, mooncakes may have other colors because of added flavors in their crusts. For example, if chocolate is added, the color of the crust might be brown. Green-colored skin is made with the juice of the aromatic Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius) leaf, a popular and uniquely South-East Asian flavor.

While traditional mooncakes are usually filled with salted duck egg yolks and lotus seed paste or red bean paste, snow skin mooncakes can be filled with a variety of fillings such as mung bean paste, fruit, green tea, jam, strawberry, chocolate, coffee, cheese.[10] Other flavored fillings include durian, sesame, mango pomelo sago, and purple yam. Read more..