Heavenly Handmade Suzhou-Style Meat Mooncakes 无以伦比的苏式鲜肉月饼

 

As Mid-Autumn Festival is around the corner, restaurants and supermarkets are piled up with different type of mooncakes. Talented bloggers are also making beautiful mooncakes that rival the commercial ones.  As a mooncake lover and home baker, how can I miss the fun? given my fondness for Suzhou-style mooncakes, I decided to bake meat mooncakes.

 

Differ from the rest of the mooncakes, Suzhou-style mooncakes sport a flaky soft crust, and are typically filled with pork meat. Yes, they have the similar filling to dumplings.  Pan-fried or baked in an oven, both taste heavenly.

 

Making the flaky crust looks complicated, but trust me, it's really not as difficult as you thought. This is also the first time I made Suzhou-style mooncakes. They look fantastic, don't they? I made 16 of them, pan-fried half, and baked half.  My family love them so much.  They were snapped up seconds after I completed photo-taking.

 

 

SUZHOU-STYLE MEAT MOONCAKES

Ingredients
 

For the water dough

-170g plain flour

-20g sugar

-65g vegetable oil (I used peanut oil)

-70g water

 

For the oil dough

-180g cake flour

-80g vegetable oil

For the meat filling

-350g pork mince

-2 tablespoons  soy sauce

-2 teaspoons salt

-2 tablespoons cooking wine

-2 tablespoons sesame oil

Directions

1. Prepare the water dough.
   • Mix the water dough ingredients together in a bowl, knead until it is smooth. Rest for 30 minutes, covered with cling wrap.
2. Prepare the oil dough.
   • Mix oil and flour until well combined. Let rest.
3. Mix meat and seasonings together, until well combined. Set aside.
4. Divide the water dough and oil dough each into 16 even portions. Roll into balls separately.
5. Take one portion of the water dough, roll out with a rolling pin into a circle. Wrap in one portion of the oil dough. Pinch gently to seal. Flatten with palm.
6. Repeat for the rest of the doughs. Make16 in total.
7. Roll out the dough into an oval shape. Roll up from the bottom tightly.
   
   
8. Do 7 again to the rolled doughs (see above picture). 
9. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle. Wrap in the meat filling. Pinch gently to seal.
10. Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 25 minutes. Or, pan fried (add 2-3 tablespoons oil in a pan) until both sides reach golden brown in color.

Recipe adapted here. For step-by-step illustration, refer to here.