Thousand Layer Flaky Swirl Yam / Taro Mooncake (with custard filling) 千层芋泥月饼

I love eating any flaky kind of pastry. And of course, I wouldn't resist eating any flaky kind of mooncakes.

After satisfying my son with mini baked custard mooncakes, I like to satisfy myself by baking my favourite thousand layer flaky yam mooncake (also known as 千层芋泥月饼 in Chinese). Learning from I have made previously at here, I have used the similar custard filling with three egg yolks to substitute the use of twelves salted yolk in my yam mooncakes. I'm so proud of myself that I have this brilliant idea... LOL!

As I can be very fussy with the quality and nutritional content of the food that I eat, I like to bake something that is not overly rich and not overly sweet and yet something still smooth and delicious to indulge.

Balance! Balance! - This is what I usually tell myself. I have used the most sensible amount of sugar and oil to bake these mooncakes and not forgetting that I have promised myself not to compromise their taste and texture.

Flaky Swirl Yam Mooncake with Custard Filling

No hassle of getting rid the tough skin of yam! I'm using the frozen ones from Asian grocery.

Use a skewer or fork to test if the yam is cooked. If it is soft enough, it is!

Process yam when it is hot as cooled yam tends to be firmer and you might fry your processor!

This is always my son's fav!

The addition of colouring is optional but the contrasting colours will make the pastry looking very pretty! 

Shaping these are so therapeutic!

These are easier to roll after chilling.

Assembling the mooncakes

Can't see much difference before and after baking? I know that the mooncake is cooked when its pastry is firm.

Can't wait to try one soon!

This is how the mooncake look on the day that it was baked ...

After chilling, these mooncakes look even more beautiful... 

See this...

Chilled mooncakes... They look so smooth and pretty!

Besides their look, you have to trust me that these mooncakes are not overly rich and not overly sweet and being perfect in its taste and texture. We don't even have to cut each of mooncake into quarters as half of these mooncake can be easily consumed even as tea time snack in just a mouthful. My fussy husband said that he is totally impressed with these mooncakes... Are you?

Here are the recipes that I used to make these mooncakes.

Yam / Taro Paste Filling mostly adapted from Yin's Homemade

Instead of making a sweet and slightly savoury Teochew style yam filling with added shallot, I have chosen to make something plain basically just yam, sugar and oil. Here, I'm making my yam filling with a reduced amount of sugar and oil added but optimal enough to taste good and smooth.

Makes 12-14 portions of yam fillings

400g peeled yam / taro, extra if you need to peel the skin
120g sugar
70ml vegetable oil, preferably rice bran oil

Peel skin off yam thoroughly and discard the skin. Otherwise, you may wish to use the frozen ones which have been peeled before packaging. Make sure nothing tough is left on the yam as the tough bits will affect the smoothness of the paste.

Cut yam into pieces and steam until soft. To test, using a skewer or a fork to pierce the taro to see if it is soft or breaks easily.

Using a processor or a blender, process the steamed and warm taro until paste-looking smooth. Warning: Cooled yam tends to be firmer and stickier to process and can potentially fry your processor! 

Place processed yam in a large frying pan. Add sugar and vegetable oil and cook mixture with medium low heat. Keep stirring and cook the mixture for about 15-20 mins or until mixture forms a dough.

Turn off the heat. Set aside. Allow the mixture to cool completely. Chill mixture thoroughly in the fridge before using it as mooncake fillings subsequently.

Custard Filling largely modified from the book, Moonlit Mid-Autumn Festival by Choong Su Yin

Makes 12 portions with less than 1/4 as leftovers
25g butter, soften
60g caster sugar (more if you like your filling to be sweeter but this is ok for us)
3 egg yolks (from 3 large eggs, each 80g), roughly beaten
1 tbsp condensed milk
100ml cream (with 35% fat) or 40ml cream + 60ml regular coconut milk
20g all purpose flour
15g custard powder
10g tapioca flour

In a small bowl, combine flour, custard powder and tapioca flour.

Using a wooden spoon, beat butter and sugar until light and combined. While beating, add egg yolks one at a time and beat until combined. Beat in condensed milk, cream (and coconut milk, optional). Sift flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture and mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a heat resistance container and steam over medium heat for 25 mins with stirring in every 5 mins. Set aside for mixture to cool.

Knead mixture until smooth. Wrap custard in cling wrap and chill it in refrigerator until required.

Thousand Layer Pastry largely modified from the book, Moonlit Mid-Autumn Festival by Choong Su Yin

Among a few great flaky yam mooncake recipe, I have decided to use this pastry recipe because 1) the one from Anncoo Journal uses slightly more fat content that this but I love to use Ann's thorough step-by-step mooncake shaping instruction as my reference to shape my mooncakes. She is always so brilliant! 2) the very well shaped mooncakes from Nasi Lemak Lover uses ghee. I know that Sonia's mooncakes are prettier but for health and personal reasons, I like to restrict myself to use of Crisco shortening with less saturated fat. I reckon both Ann's, Sonia's and my recipes all make nice and flaky pastry. Which is better? I don't know and I guess the choice is really up to each individual.

Makes 12 mooncakes

For the water dough:
60g shortening
1 tbsp sugar
80g warm water
1/4 tsp vinegar
180g high protein flour

drops of purple colouring, preferably natural colouring (optional)

For the shortening dough:
180g all-purpose flour
100g shortening

To make the water dough, combine warm water, vinegar and purple colouring. Dissolve sugar in the vinegar mixture. Rub in shortening into high protein flour, add the vinegar mixture gradually. Combine and knead into a dough. Allow dough to rest in the fridge for at least an hour, then divide into 6 portions.

To make the shortening dough, steam all-purpose flour and sieve when it is completely cool. Add shortening into the flour and knead to form a smooth dough.  Allow dough to rest in the fridge for at least an hour, then divide into 6 portions.

To assemble:
Line baking trays with baking paper. Preheat oven at at 200°C or 180°C fan forced.

With reference to my picture, wrap one portion of shortening dough inside one portion of water dough. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into an oval shape, then roll it tightly like a Swiss roll.

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into long strip and roll it tightly again like a Swiss roll. Using a knife, cut the rolled up dough into half. Repeat the same with the rest of the 5 portions of water and shortening dough.

With the incision part facing downward, use a rolling pin to flatten each half of the dough gently and then roll it out to about 5mm thickness without tearing the spiral designs.

Meanwhile, divide yam filling into 12-14 portions in the size of a golf ball. Roll out custard filling into 12 portions in the size of an egg yolk and wrap each into each portion of the yam paste.

Place each portion of yam filling in the middle of each rolled out pastry. Wrap filling inside the pastry. Seal the end. 

Arrange shaped mooncakes on prepared tray and bake for 20 min or until pastry look firm and cooked. Allow mooncakes to cool on the tray slightly for 5 mins, then remove to racks to cool completely. Serve when they are completely cooled or chilled in the fridge.

Storage: As these mooncakes are made with reduced amount of sugar, they should be stored at room temperature only up to 3 days and can last up to 2 weeks if they are stored in the fridge.

Happy Baking
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