Flour, sugar, and leaveners might be the essentials of any pantry, but for me sago is as much as an essential as those ingredients. Sago has been a staple of family’s kitchen and now mine as well. It’s the main ingredient of mango sago (and all the other desserts of my sago series), my favourite version of dessert soup, as well as these kabocha salted egg yolk snowskin mooncakes I’ve been making for years. In my family’s kitchen, sago is mostly used for crystal sago cakes, little steamed cakes filled with custard or bean paste. Sago is what makes the cakes special — because when steamed, the sago becomes translucent and chewy, ready to show off the filling that is inside of it. In my family’s kitchen, the sago cakes are shaped and steamed inside a muffin pan, but for Mid-Autumn this year, I’m shaping them with a mooncake press to make sago mooncakes.
Sago pearls are not the same as tapioca pearls (commonly found in bubble tea), and can’t be used interchangeably for this recipe. Sago pearls are small and white, and become completely translucent when cooked in water. Cooking the pearls completely submerged in water is the more common preparation for sago in Chinese desserts, but for these sago mooncakes, the sago pearls are first soaked in hot water, formed into a dough for the mooncakes, then steamed until they are no longer opaque. The sago pearls form a deeply satisfying chew, but what I think makes these sago mooncakes even more special is that you can see the filling of each mooncake without cutting into them. Using custard will produce a yellow sago mooncakes, while using taro and purple yam will create a deep purple mooncake. Feel free to use whatever filling you like, the recipe is as versatile as it is enjoyable. Sago cakes and mooncakes are best enjoyed the day they are made. They will lose it’s chew by the next day, especially if they’ve been placed in the refrigerator. To enjoy them the next day, simply steam them again until they are soft and translucent.
Taro Sago Crystal Mooncake
Ingredients
Taro Filling
- 230 g (2 1/4 cup) taro and/or purple yam, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, steamed
- 60 g (3 tbsp) condensed milk
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Sago Wrapper
- 100 g (1/2 cup) sago pearls
- 100 g boiling water
- 25 g (2 tbsp) granulated sugar
- 35 g (4 tbsp) cornstarch
Instructions
Taro Filling
- In a large pot with a steamer basket, steam taro and purple yam until fork tender, about 10 – 15 minutes.
- Transfer taro into a bowl and using a fork, mash until it becomes a paste. Add condensed milk and salt. If you like the filling a little sweeter, add granulated sugar, a teaspoon at a time. Adding more condensed milk will make the filling too sticky to handle. Allow filling to cool.
- Divide the filling into 10 equal portions, about 30g per portion.
- Transfer filling to a plate, loosely cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to chill in the freezer while you prep the wrapper.
Sago Wrapper
- Place sago pearls in a large bowl. Add boiling water and allow the sago pearls to soak for 20 minutes.
- After 20 mintues, add sugar and cornstarch. Knead the dough until it comes together (you will still see each individual pearl). Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
- Evenly divide dough into 11 equal portions, about 20g per portion. You will only be using 10 of the portions, but have the extra portion is great for patching up any mooncakes with exposed filling.
- Using you fingers, light flatten out each portion of sago dough into a circle of 2 inches in diameter. Place a ball of chilled filling at the centre of each round of dough. Gently fold up the sides and pinch the seams to seal the the dough around the filling. Repeat with all the portions of dough and filling.
- Lightly dust a 50g mooncake press with cornstarch. Using the mooncake press, shape the sago cakes.
- Place each sago cake on a small parchment paper square. Transfer the cakes to a large pot with a steamer basket. Steam sago mooncakes over medium-high heat for 20 minutes, until the sago wrapper becomes translucent.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before enjoying. Sago mooncakes should be enjoyed the day they are made. Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge and reheating by steaming.
![day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cookies ✨
the instructions might seem confusing, but if you watch the video to see how the different flavour layers are stacked, it will make much more sense! these slice and bake cookies freeze extremely well so you can make the dough now and bake them off when you want to gift them. (makes 40-44)
vanilla dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
matcha dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt
strawberry dough
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g 6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg white
coarse sanding sugar
for the vanilla dough, combine butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. mix until smooth. add vanilla. add flour and salt and mix until no dry streaks remain. do the same for the matcha and strawberry doughs in separate bowls
place one portion of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 5 x 9-inch rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick. slide rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 10 min until firm. repeat this step with the other portions of dough
remove the top piece of parchment from each slab and stack the strawberry, vanilla, and matcha dough layers. cut the slab down the middle the long way to form two 2.5 x 9-inch rectangles. with one half, carefully swap the order of the layers (example: if the first half of the dough is stacked svm, swap the second half so it’s msv. this will ensure that same flavour squares don’t stack on each other). stack the halves. press the layers gently to adhere them. return the stacked dough to the freezer for another 10min
[recipe cont’d in comments]
#christmasbaking #christmascookies #holidaybaking #holidaycookies #cookiedecorating](https://constellationinspiration.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
Eva says
Yours are so pretty, mine didn’t come out so well. I followed the instructions exactly but my sago skin didn’t come out totally clear, I still had some hard white beads all over the moon cakes. I even tried to steam them a little longer but it didn’t really change anything. These are so pretty and I hope mine come out better next time.