Mooncakes galore! :)

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival!

This year I made my usual snowskin mooncakes with taro lotus, green tea lotus and mung bean fillings, baked red bean mooncakes and matcha and durian ice cream mochi mooncakes!

This ube flavouring gives such a nice smell and colour! Love it! But I seriously am desperate in finding taro flavour or powder still! :( This is the 5th year of making snowskin mooncakes (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), my 2nd year of baking mooncakes and the first time making mochi icecream mooncakes! Hehe. I'm kinda getting sick of my mooncake designs now though.. I really need to look for different ones.

Before baking

Baked then eggwash applied.

And the end result? (I stole this off C's instagram :P)

Anyway, getting back to the mochi icecream mooncakes or daifuku as the Japanese call it. :)
A few weeks back, I made matcha and durian ice creams.

Durian icecream
Makes about 700ml

5 pieces of durian flesh (each seed)
350ml milk (I used Physical No Fat, as I couldn't be bothered going out to buy normal milk)
300ml cream
4 Tbsp sugar
4 egg yolks

Blend durian into a paste.
In a saucepan, heat up milk, cream and sugar until dissolved. Heat till near boiling and stir in durian.
Turn heat down.
Add egg yolks and mix until combined.
Refrigerate.
Use icecream machine as per instructions.
Place into a container, cover with cling wrap and close lid.
Freeze overnight.

And.... I can't remember my quantities for the matcha icecream anymore :( (I seriously feel like I'm getting dementia). There were no eggs involved in the icecream.

Anyway, back to making the mochi ice cream mooncakes. What you need to do is scoop the icecream and set it first. I used 2 scoops of icecream (combined into one ball) per mooncake. Must work quickly to prevent melting and freeze these overnight.

For the mochi skin:
Makes enough skin for about 4-6

100g glutinous rice flour
120g sugar
200ml water
(matcha powder or durian flavouring)

lots of corn/wheat starch (~100-150g)

*I halved the quantity of each ingredient for each flavour.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper and lots of corn/wheat starch.
Mix all other ingredients until combined. Cover lightly with cling wrap.
Microwave for about 2mins. (I did 1.5min each)
The mixture should be cooked. Mix it again.
Cover lightly with cling wrap again.
Microwave for another 30 secs.
Mix again until smooth.

Place onto baking tray. Cover with more corn/wheat starch.
Push the mochi out into a rectangular shape.
Refrigerate for 30mins to an hour.
Cut mochi into about 4 sections (I ruined mine by stretching out a bit too much in some points, so only managed to get 2 usuable pieces per flavour)
Get a pieces of cling wrap.
Dust off excess corn/wheat starch from the mochi piece, place onto cling wrap.
Place ice cream ball on top, and gently wrap. Twist cling wrap tightly and freeze immediately.

Once hardened, carefully push into a mooncake mould.

Wrap into cling wrap and freeze until ready to eat.
Enjoy. Remember to drink lots of yummy tea with your mooncakes! :)