Step 1

The night before making your mooncakes, rinse your mung beans and cover with several inches of water (they'll absorb more water than you think!). Allow to soak overnight. If you're in a rush, this process can be sped up by soaking the mung beans in hot water for a couple hours.

Step 2

Drain the mung beans, then place in a heatproof dish and steam on medium heat for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, check the consistency of the mung beans — if they're very soft/mushy and crumble with very little force between two fingers, they're ready. If not, continue to steam for another 10 minutes and check the consistency again. Repeat until soft, then let cool a bit. Note: If you don't have a steamer set up, you can boil your mung beans in a pinch; however, this will affect how long your mung beans will take to cook down in step 4 — you'll end up cooking quite a bit longer to drive off the extra moisture.

Step 3

Place the warm or room temp mung beans in a food processor with the remaining ingredients. Start the processor — the mixture will be quite thick to begin with. Gradually add in a tablespoon of water at a time, waiting at least a few seconds after each addition before adding more, until the mung bean mixture just loosens up enough so it's not balled up around the blade of the food processor — it shouldn't be liquidy, but it should move freely around the blade. Continue to process for a few more minutes until very smooth, then transfer to a nonstick pan.

Step 4

Heat the mixture over medium low heat, mixing and folding constantly with a heatproof spatula so the paste doesn't take on any color — the goal here is to heat off any excess water moisture in the paste, and to cook the glutinous rice flour a bit. You'll notice the paste start to come together as a cohesive mass. After it comes together, continue to cook for 5-10 more minutes to really ensure you've cooked off as much moisture as possible. This entire process can take anywhere between 15 and 25 minutes.

Step 5

Transfer the paste to a dish, cover it with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and cool to room temperature. While that's cooling, work on your snowskin.

Step 1

If your coconut oil is very firm/solid, melt it it in the microwave until JUST melted (you don't want it to be hot). Mix all the ingredients in a medium sized microwave-proof bowl until no lumps remain.

Step 2

Cover the bowl with a damp paper towel and microwave for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, check to see if the mixture is mostly solid (though it should still be soft!) with no liquid pooling. If not, keep microwaving on 30 second bursts until the mixture looks mostly congealed. Carefully remove from the microwave and let cool until warm enough to handle.

Step 3

At this point you can dye your snowskin if you'd like — food coloring works, or you can try natural dyes and flavorings like matcha, beetroot powder, butterfly pea powder, charcoal powder, turmeric, and more.

Step 1

Prepare your workspace: measure out portions of the filling into 23-26 grams (you're targeting about 25 grams but it doesn't need to be exact). Place these portions on a plate or baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap as you're working to avoid the mixture drying out too much.

Step 2

Working quickly, measure 25-30g of snowskin mixture and knead until smooth. Work into a rough circle shape, about the size of a dumpling wrapper (or about 2.5 inches in diameter). No need to be perfect here — the main thing is to avoid tearing any holes in the dough, and you also want to try to make the edges slightly thinner than the center of the wrapper.

Step 3

Take a piece of filling and work it in your hands a bit to remove any potential air pockets (if you've ever done ceramics, think of this like "wedging" your filling). Roll the filling into a very neat ball. Place the ball in the center of your flattened snowskin and wrap the snowskin around completely, pinching the edges together to join them and ensure no filling leaks out. Once all the filling is completely enclosed, roll the ball between your palms until smooth and round. Dust with a light sprinkling of potato starch and roll again. Press with a plastic mooncake mold (a wooden mold won't work here).

Step 4

These are best eaten immediately/day-of, but can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. Let them sit out on your counter for at least 30 minutes to allow them time to soften and warm up a bit after removing from the fridge.