After breakfast, the Tian An family began to get busy. Qingmei, who was good at making cakes, and Qiaoniang, who was good at making noodles, would stay home today to use their specialties.
Tian An wanted to make two kinds of mooncakes: one was the sweet, soft, and cool snow-skin mooncake, and the other was the soft and delicious Cantonese mooncake. As for the crispy ham mooncake, there was nothing she could do because she didn't have ham!
Tian An prepared four kinds of fillings for snow skin mooncakes: mung bean paste, red bean paste, lotus seed paste, and custard paste.
Snow skin also comes in four colors: original white, matcha green, blue and white, and emerald green.
The original white one contains custard filling, the matcha green one contains red bean paste filling, the blue and white one contains mung bean paste filling, and the emerald one contains lotus seed paste filling.
Tian An and Qingmei discussed the recipes for lotus seed paste, red bean paste, and mung bean paste, and found they all had similar methods. It was the custard filling that Qingmei had never made before, so Tian An had to make it himself.
I cooked the lotus seeds, which had been soaked the night before, and ground them into a paste using a stone mill. Manually pulling the stone mill was too strenuous, and the donkey I had bought couldn't pull a cart, but it was no problem, so it came in handy this time.
The task of grinding lotus seeds was given to Deng Xue. It was not difficult for her to grind the lotus seeds by pulling the donkey. She just had to pay attention to filling the millstone.
After the lotus seeds are ground, give them to Qingmei. After cleaning the stone mill again, you can then grind the mung beans, and then the red beans.
Wash the pot clean with green plums, pour in the ground lotus seed paste, then stir-fry over low heat, pour in cooking oil three times, wait until the lotus seed paste has absorbed all the oil, then add sugar and continue to stir-fry until it melts, finally add an appropriate amount of malt sugar, then continue to stir-fry until it forms a clumping mass.
Then the mung bean paste and red bean paste fillings are prepared in the same way. Qingmei is skilled in cooking and uses the right ingredients. The fillings are neither too sweet nor too bland, and the taste is just right.
The other three ingredients were given to her, and Tian An began to make the custard filling.
Beat the eggs in a clean bowl, add milk, sugar, and oil and mix well. Then add appropriate amount of flour and cornstarch and stir again until there are no particles. Pour into the pan and start frying the stuffing.
The process of frying the stuffing is simply to keep stirring until your hands are sore that they almost break, and then it is almost done. Drain and let it cool and set aside.
After frying the filling, stir-fry some cooked rice flour. Cooked rice flour is simply glutinous rice flour that has been fried until it's cooked through and doesn't have the rawness. This is essential for making snowy mooncakes.
The filling is ready, and now it’s time to make the snow skin.
Put milk, sugar and oil in a large bowl and mix well. Then add glutinous rice flour, sticky rice flour and cornstarch. Stir again until there are no particles. Then steam it in a pot and it will become snow skin.
The snow skin here comes in original and matcha flavors.
Then Tian An took out the butterfly pea flower water that had been soaked in advance to mix the green ice skin.
The method and ingredients are the same, just reduce the amount of milk and add butterfly pea water, stir evenly and steam it.
After the batter was steamed and taken out to cool slightly, Tian An divided the dough into two portions and gave the larger portion to Qiao Niang to knead.
Add some matcha powder to the smaller portion and start kneading it evenly.
When Qiao Niang saw that Tian An's dough had turned green, she asked curiously, "What did you add to it? It turned green."
Tian An said as he kneaded the dough, "It's matcha powder."
"Matcha powder? Is it tea? Can you make pastries with tea like this?"
"Not only can I make pastries, I can also make milk tea! I'll make it for you when I have the chance." Tian An said as he put down the softened dough.
Chun Xi asked doubtfully, "Miss, there was no matcha powder on the list you gave me before!"
"This is not sold outside. Didn't I ask you to buy green tea? I made this with tea leaves last night." Matcha powder was actually taken out directly from the space. Tian An asked Chun Xi to buy green tea just as a cover-up.
Chun Xi had no doubts and just said, "Miss, you went to bed so late last night and stayed up late to make matcha powder. Why didn't you ask us to do it?"
Tian An said guiltily, "Everyone is tired! This is relatively simple, so I won't bother you."
Qiao Niang was touched and said, "Miss, you are so kind to us. You are the best host in the world."
Tian An smiled but said nothing. She felt guilty!
The two colors of ice skin are ready, and the butterfly pea flower one is also steamed. After cooling, let Qiao Niang knead the three colors of ice skin evenly and they are all ready.
"Girl, the color of the ice skin made from that little blue flower is so beautiful!" Qiao Niang exclaimed.
She was good at making pasta, but that was limited to making various shapes. She couldn't do anything about the colors. The dyes they used before didn't look as good as this.
Without waiting for Tian An to explain, Chun Xi had already found an excuse for her: "Miss, did you pick this little blue flower when you went to the mountains before?"
They only learned later that before they came, the girl and the boy often went to the mountains to hunt and dig herbs. That was how they saved the money to buy them.
Since the pillow was handed over, Tian An naturally leaned forward and said, "Well, this little flower is hard to find. I picked it when I saw it."
The snow skin is ready, and the green plum filling is also ready.
Next came the mooncake wrapping. Qingmei and Qiaoniang were both familiar with the process, rolling out the dough, wrapping the filling, dipping it in cooked cake flour, and pressing the molds all in one go. In no time, they had made the four flavors of snowy mooncakes Tian An had requested.
Tian An cut the mooncake with a knife and let everyone have a taste.
Chun Xi: "This snow skin mooncake looks beautiful and tastes even better."
Qiao Niang: "This custard filling made by the young lady is so delicious! I have never eaten such delicious filling."
Qingmei: "This ice skin is so chewy, especially the matcha one. It has a refreshing tea flavor and is a perfect match with the red bean paste."
Others: “It’s delicious.”
Tian An also tried a piece. Qingmei and Qiao Niang were very skilled in their craftsmanship. The ice skin was evenly distributed and the fillings were just right. It was really good.
"Quick, make a few more and I'll take them out for Mr. Han and Granny Qin to try."
Qingmei and Qiao Niang skillfully made one of each filling, and Tian An put them on a plate and carried them to the main room.
He first called Granny Qin and then went to the study to call Mr. Han and Zhao Yiming.
"Come and try our newly baked snow skin mooncakes. Give me some feedback so I can improve them. We've started making them in large quantities."
Granny Qin picked up a blue and white one and said, "If nothing else, this is the most beautiful thing."
He took another sip and said, "This must be made with milk! What's there to complain about with this taste?"
Mr. Han picked up the one with custard filling and said, "I've never tried this kind of filling before! It's really good. I can't find any fault with it!"
Zhao Yiming tried the matcha one: "This one has a unique flavor and looks good. I don't think there's anything that can be improved."
After receiving unanimous praise from everyone, Tian An immediately returned to the kitchen and announced the start of mass production.
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