Thousand Layer Moon Cake

It's been extremely long since I've posted anything. I just finished my thesis (yay!) so now I have free time! Over Thanksgiving break, I tried a lot of things out, one of it being the thousand layer moon cake. I have a weakness for flaky crispy pastries, so this one was a must. It turned out really well! Enjoy!

Thousand Layer Moon Cake with Sweet Potato Filling

Materials

Water Dough

· 1 cup AP flour

· 3.5 tbsp butter, cut to small pieces

· 2 tbsp powdered sugar

· 5 tbsp + 2 tsp water

Oil Dough

· ¾ cup + 1 tbsp AP flour

· 4 tbsp vegetable oil

· 2 – 3 drops of pandan essence

Sweet Potato Filling

· 1 small sweet potato (or ½ a large one)

· 2 tbsp sugar

· 1 tsp oil

Procedure

· Boil the sweet potato until soft.

· Peel and smash until there are no more clumps.

· In a pot, add the sweet potato filling, sugar, and oil, and mix until it is homogenous

· Let cool. Once cool, make 10 1” diameter balls of filling.

· For the water dough: add everything but the water. Slowly add the water as you mix the dough. Mix until it forms a non-sticky ball (~3 minutes) and let sit for 15 minutes.

· After it sits, divide the dough to 5 pieces.

· For the oil dough: add everything but the pandan essence and mix for 1 minute. Add the pandan essence and mix until the ball becomes a nice even green. The dough should be able to form a ball without falling apart. If it is falling apart, add a bit more oil. Let sit for 15 minutes.

· After it sits, divide the dough into 5 pieces and roll it up into a ball.

· See this video for how to roll the dough for the layers. It’s much clearer than anything I could write to help you understand it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig7UV_Idw78 Thanks tinyurbankitchen!

· Preheat the oven to 250°F and bake for 30 minutes until they layers are flaky but the moon cake is not golden.

**Side note: I made this with sweet potato filling because I didn’t have any mung beans at the time. If you have mung beans, you can use mung bean filling. It has a longer shelf life – 1 week. The sweet potato filling lasts only a few days.