Black Sesame Snow Skin Mooncakes

I have become a fan of snow skin mooncakes the past few years, and these black sesame snow skin mooncakes are the latest addition to my mooncake recipe library. A traditional snow skin mooncake skin is filled with a thick, earthy black sesame paste. No baking or steaming required, making them the easiest mooncake you will make for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Traditional mooncakes will always be my first love during the Mid-Autumn festival, but the past two years, my love for snow skin mooncakes has grown. They are so much easier to make than traditional mooncakes, making them way more accessible to beginners. They also take a lot less time which is great for people with busy lives like me. This year, I’ve tested, experimented, and developed these black sesame snow skin mooncakes that are just amazing. They combine a classic black sesame paste filling with a traditional white snow skin exterior. I’ve also learned a few tips and tricks this year that I share below to help you with your mooncake making!

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival?

The Mid Autumn Festival, or also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, takes place on the 15th day of the Chinese lunar calendar. In other Asian countries, it’s known by other names like Tet (Vietnam), Chuseok (Korea), and Tsukimi (Japan). It is the day of the year where the Chinese believe the moon is at its brightest, and it also coincides with the fall harvest. The Chinese celebrate the festival by lighting lanterns to light people’s path to prosperity and eating mooncakes!

What are snow skin mooncakes?

The difference between traditional and snow skin mooncakes is the mooncake skin. In traditional mooncakes, the skin is made with a dough that needs to be baked, and the texture is a lot more cake like while in snow skin mooncakes, the dough is made with sweet rice flour and it doesn’t need to be baked. The sweet rice flour also gives it a chewy texture. Personally, I found snow skin mooncakes a lot easier and less time consuming to make. Making these black sesame snow skin mooncakes took me an hour vs the 8 hours it took me to make traditional mooncakes.

In terms of the filling, traditional snow skin mooncake fillings are a custard filling or red bean paste. In this recipe, I used a thick black sesame paste for my filling which is a more non-traditional filling.

How I developed my black sesame snow skin mooncake recipe

I adapted my matcha snow skin mooncake recipe for this recipe. For the skin, I removed the matcha powder and increased to the sweet rice flour and rice flour to compensate for the loss in matcha powder. For the filling, I created a drier version of my black sesame paste recipe. I found that using some granulated sugar instead of 100% honey makes a drier, more solid filling which is what you need for these mooncakes.

Ingredients, Substitions & Adjustments

Mooncake Skin

• Sweet rice flour – The sweet rice flour serves 2 purposes for this recipe. 1) The sweet rice flour gives the mooncake its chewy skin. 2) Sweet rice flour is also used to coat the formed mooncake, so it doesn’t stick to the mooncake mold. I only use Koda Farms sweet rice flour for all my baking. It’s the best.
• Regular rice flour – Regular rice flour helps gives the skin some structure.
• Corn starch – Corn starch also helps gives the skin some structure and gives these mooncakes their snowy white color (hence their name). Traditionally, wheat starch is used, but corn starch is a lot more accessible which is why I chose to use it instead.
• Powdered sugar – Adds sweetness to the mooncakes.
• Whole milk & condensed milk – Both help the mooncake skin feel smooth. Condensed milk also adds some sweetness to the mooncakes. Coconut milk is a good substitute for whole milk
• Vegetable oil – Any kind of neutral oil will work for this recipe. Vegetable oil can be substituted with grapeseed oil.

Black Sesame Paste Filling

• Sweet rice flour – Helps balance out the wet ingredients in this black sesame paste.
• Black sesame powder – I used to make black sesame powder from whole sesame seeds, but recently, I’ve defaulted to using black sesame powder. It’s just so much easier. You can buy it from Asian grocery stores or on Amazon.
• Granulated sugar – Adds sweetness to the filling.
• Honey – Adds sweetness to the filling and helps hold it together.
• Coconut oil – Adds moisture to the filling and helps hold it together.
• Salt – Brings out the flavor of the other ingredients.

How to make black sesame snow skin mooncakes

Prepping the skin and filling

First, make your filling. Toast 1/4 cup of sweet rice flour. Heat a pan over medium high heat and add the sweet rice flour. Toast for 2-3 minutes until smoke starts coming off the flour. Add 2 tsp of the sweet rice flour to a medium-sized bowl. Pour the rest into a small bowl and set aside.

Add 3/4 cup of black sesame powder, 3 tbsp of granulated sugar, 1 tbsp of honey, 1/4 cup of coconut oil, and 1/4 tsp of salt to the medium-sized bowl. Mix until the black sesame filling holds together. Set aside.

Next, make the mooncake skin. In a separate bowl, combine 3 tbsp of sweet rice flour, 3 tbsp of rice flour, 2 tbsp of corn starch, 3 tbsp of powdered sugar, 1/2 cup of whole milk, 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, and 1 tbsp of condensed milk. Whisk until smooth. Cover with a plate and microwave for 4 minutes. Once done, uncover and let the mooncake skin cool for 5 minutes until it is cool enough to handle. Knead the mooncake skin for 5 minutes until it has a smooth surface. Use gloves to protect your hands from the heat.

Forming your mooncakes

Using a kitchen scale, divide the black sesame filling into 7 25-gram balls. Repeat this process with the mooncake skin. Divide the mooncake skin into 7 25-gram balls.

Now it’s time to form your mooncakes. Flatten the mooncake skin ball into a 3 inch disc. (I like to sandwich the mooncake skin between 2 pieces of parchment paper. This prevents it from sticking.) Place the black sesame filling in the center. Envelop the filling with the skin and pinch it closed.

Roll the mooncake in the toasted sweet rice flour from step 1. Place the mooncake into a mooncake mold and press it down onto a piece of parchment paper for 15 seconds. Lift up and push the mooncake out from the mold. Repeat this process for the rest of the mooncakes. Serve right away or store for up to 3 days in the fridge.

Tips on how to make the perfect black sesame snow skin mooncakes

Cover the dough when microwaving to preserve moisture

When microwaving the mooncake skin dough. cover to preserve the moisture. As the dough heats up, some of the moisture will evaporate if uncovered. This affects how smooth the skin will be.

Knead mooncake skin dough for at least 5 minutes

I made these mooncakes 4 times and found that this is the key to a nice smooth skin. My first few tests, I only kneaded the dough for 1-2 minutes which made the surface of my mooncakes bumpy. It was also harder to shape, and my mooncake designs didn’t hold very well.

Use gloves to knead your mooncake skin dough

Using gloves makes it so much easier to knead the dough. It’s a lot easier to work with the dough when it’s still warm, so the gloves help protect your hands as you work with it.

Hold the mooncake stamp for 15 seconds

For snow skin mooncakes, I would say this is the best way to make sure your mooncake stamp stays on your mooncake. I had a lot of trouble in my first few tests because I wasn’t holding my mold down for that long.

How do you store these black sesame snow skin mooncakes?

These mooncakes are best served right away, but you can store them in the fridge for up to 3 days. Please note that the mooncake skin will harden over time.

Did you make this dish?

If you made this dish, I would love to see!

Follow Cooking Therapy on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag and hashtag it with @cooking__therapy and #beccascookingtherapy.

Stay connected and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for all my latest recipes.

Disclaimer: If you purchase anything through a link on this site, I may receive a small commission from the purchase at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products that I would personally use. Thank you so much for the support!