pandan spiral mooncakes
Author: 
Recipe type: dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 10-12
 
Ingredients
  • FOR THE FILLING:
  • 400-500g taro root (the large Chinese taro, not the small Japanese kind)*
  • pinch salt
  • FOR THE MOON CAKE DOUGH:
  • Water Dough: 200g bleached cake flour (AP flour doesn't work well -- the dough cracks)
  • 28g confectioners' sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 80g cold unsalted butter
  • 80g water
  • Oil Dough: 180g bleached cake flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 90g oil (I used canola)
  • ½ teaspoon pandan essence
Instructions
  1. Wash and peel taro. Cut into 1-2-inch cubes to equal 300g.
  2. Boil pot of water with pinch of salt, and add taro pieces. Boil until fork tender (mine took about 25 minutes).
  3. Remove from water and mash taro with ¼ cup sugar to make a thick paste, one that you can roll into balls. If it seems dry (or if you use purple yam), add a small amount of butter or milk. Taste and add more sugar if you want more sweetness. My taro was fairly wet and sticky when hot. As it cooled, it was more manageable and firmer, but not easy to roll into true balls.
  4. Roll into 20 balls and set aside.
  5. For the WATER DOUGH, sift 200g flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in large bowl.
  6. Cut 80g cold butter into flour mixture using fingertips or pastry blender until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
  7. Add in 80g water and mix to form a soft, non-sticky dough. If it is sticky, you will need to add a bit (just a little!) more flour to get it to the right texture. You should be able to form a soft ball that won’t stick to your hands. Cover and set aside to rest for 20 minutes.
  8. For the OIL DOUGH, sift 180g flour and salt.
  9. Make a well in the center of the flour and add in 90g oil and pandan essence.
  10. Draw in the flour from the sides and mix to form a soft even colored dough. If it’s too sticky, add more flour until you form a soft ball that doesn’t stick to your hands. Mine was very soft but moldable into squishy balls. Do not over-mix. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes.
  11. TO ASSEMBLE AND BAKE:** Preheat oven to 185 degrees C or 350 degrees F.
  12. If you haven't reviewed Annie's You Tube video on her pandan spiral mooncake assembly slideshow on her website (www.houseofannie.com), I recommend that you do for a good visual teaching on how to roll the pastries.
  13. Divide WATER DOUGH (white dough) and OIL DOUGH (green dough) into 10 equal balls.
  14. Taking one piece of WATER DOUGH, flatten and wrap OIL DOUGH in it. Pinch to seal edges.
  15. With the sealed side facing up, roll into a rectangle. (Did you see her website?)
  16. Roll up like a snail to form a cigar shape, turn the cigar 90 degrees, with the end facing up. (See the slideshow yet? Go!)
  17. Roll again into a long thin strip. Roll this up into another cigar shape.
  18. Using a sharp knife or a pastry cutter, cut the cylinder in the middle into two pieces.
  19. With the cut side facing down, flatten the dough, making the edges slightly thinner than the center. Annie recommends leaving a little hump in the center so that when the filling is wrapped around the pastry, the dough will be evenly thick all around (reminiscent of a Mexican sombrero). I did this for some of mine. Even with the "hump' trick, I had some taro leakage on the top (see photos above - they are my unintentional creation of Monsters, Inc. character Mike Wazowski). Lesson learned: be very gentle with the dough and make the middle much thicker than the edges.
  20. Wrap the filling and pinch to seal. Try not to tug too hard, otherwise the layers will tear. It's best to flatten the dough so it's larger than smaller so it’s easier to pinch. And when you pinch, you will find that the bottom looks ugly—don’t worry about it.
  21. Place sealed side down on lined baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes until the tops and bottoms are a light golden brown.
Notes
* Taro tasted great but the consistency was too soft to form the pastries without developing inner air pockets. I suggest trying purple yams (as Annie uses) or something with similar consistency). ** See Annie's primer on this with a slideshow on her site. The link is above in my post. It is extremely helpful so pay a visit if you want some great visual teaching. Go, look, learn! NOTE: Why the metric measurements? This is how Annie's recipe read, and it worked. Since flour is milled differently country to country, and Annie made a point to say that cake flour worked well, I didn't want to mess with success. I highly recommend a kitchen scale if you don't already have one. It is the best $16 I've spent.
Recipe by story of a kitchen at https://www.storyofakitchen.com/dessert-recipes/pandan-spiral-mooncake-recipe/