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You have to try this Suzhou style savory mooncakes stuffed with pork filling enclosed in a flakiest crust to believe how tasty they are! They can be baked in the oven or cooked on the pan.
The Flakiest Suzhou Pork Mooncake Ever!
THE GOOD NEWS IS THEY ARE SO EASY TO MAKE!
Seriously…this Suzhou pork mooncake is probably one of the best I’ve ever tasted! My mom absolutely loves this! and I couldn’t tell you how proud I was when mom gave her big thumbs up 😉 9 years ago, she was the one who cooked for me all the time when she visited us. Now, I’m happy to be able to make something for her to eat, and a good one too!
I’m not kidding when I said these Suzhou pork mooncakes aren’t difficult to make at all. It’s very similar to making Spiral Curry Puff. The filling is made with pork and seasonings and ingredients I would use to make pork dumplings.
BAKING VS COOKING ON THE PAN
When you bake them, they will puff up nicely and you can see the separation of the flaky layers more clearly compared to when you cook them on the pan. Both still give good result, but the baked version has my vote. They are crispier and it’s nice to see the flaky layers inside. I feel that it’s easier too, to bake than pan frying. The pan frying has more of the look like the ones sold on the street 🙂
The flaky crust makes you think that these Suzhou mooncakes are difficult to make, but in reality, if you know how to mix and roll dough with a rolling pin, you can do this! No fancy or special equipment needed!
HOW TO STORE LEFTOVER SUZHOU MOONCAKE
ROOM TEMPERATURE: They can be kept at room temperature (if humidity is not bad) for 3 days max. After that they need to go in the refrigerator or freezer
REFRIGERATOR: They can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Simply bake in a preheated oven or air-fryer at 350 F for 5-8 minutes or until heated through
FREEZER: For longer storage, store them in the freezer. Put them on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper, not touching each other and freeze for about 1 hour. Transfer to a freezer bag or container and they can be kept for up to 3 months. When ready to eat, do not thaw, simply bake in a preheated oven or air-fryer at 350 F for 10-15 minutes or until heated through.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you! These mini Suzhou mooncakes went fast at our house. They didn’t even last for 2 days!
DID YOU MAKE THIS SUZHOU PORK MOONCAKE RECIPE?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
The Flakiest Suzhou Pork Mooncake Ever!
Ingredients
Water dough:
- 85 gr pastry flour or cake flour
- 10 gr icing sugar
- 30 gr cooking oil
- 35 gr water plus more as needed
- pinch of salt
Oil dough:
- 90 gr all-purpose flour
- 40 gr cooking oil plus more as needed
Filling:
- 180 gr ground pork
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp cooking wine
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- ¼ tsp salt or more to taste
- ¼ tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
Prepare the filling:
- Place all ingredients for filling in a mixing bowl. Use a chopstick in one direction until it forms a paste. Cover and set aside to chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the doughs. You can make this the day before
Make the oil dough:
- Mix the oil and flour in a small mixing bowl and knead into a smooth non-sticky dough. If the dough feels dry add more oil, one teaspoon at a time. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes
Make the water dough:
- Place all the ingredients for water dough in a mixing bowl, except for the water. Start with half of the amount of water first. You may need all the water or more, you may not. Knead into a soft non-sticky dough. If it's too dry, you can add a bit more water, one teaspoon at a time. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes
Rolling and wrapping (refer to video if unclear):
- Get the water dough and give it a few knead. The dough will smooth out. Flatten into a disc. Place the oil dough ball in the middle and wrap the water dough around it. Cover and let it rest for 15 minutes
- Use a rolling pin to roll into a rectangle, about 30 x 40 cm in size. Fold 1/3 from the left, and then another 1/3 from the right. Keeping the edges as evenly rectangle as possible. Use a rolling pin to roll it out again into rectangle, about 30x 40 cm in size. Swiss roll it up from the side near you. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Cover tightly with a cling wrap to let it rest another 30 minutes
- Preheat oven to 375 F (190C). Get one dough. Flatten in the middle and gather the two sides up to meet. Flatten with your palm. Use a rolling pin to roll it out into about 4-5 inch disc, slightly thicker in the middle. Scoop about 1 Tbsp of filling into the middle. Wrap the dough around it and slightly pinch to seal. Place the seam side down and use your palm to gently flatten it into a disc, about 1-inch thick. Repeat with the rest. Place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
Baking:
- Bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes and then flip over to let the other side brown, another 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven after that and let them cool down completely on the rack
If cooking on the stove:
- Preheat a non-stick pan over medium heat with a little bit of oil. Place the mooncake on the pan, seam sides down, cover with a lid and cook over medium heat, about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. The skin will start to flake too. Flip over and cook the other side is brown too and the filling is cooked through, about 15 minutes or so
10 comments
I made these today and they turned out really well!! The only issue I had was that I forgot to cover the dough while rolling so they dried out quite a bit and kept tearing while I was trying to stuff them. I ended up swiping a thin layer of oil onto my table and on the pastry which did help with the breaking pastry! It made for a slightly uglier pastry (it puffed up a bit when baked), but I was in a rush so I didn’t mind them. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Priscilla, it happened to me before too that the pastry dried up when I forgot to cover them or didn’t cover them tightly. I’m glad they still puff up nicely for you. The recipe is quite forgiving. Thanks again for trying and for letting me know 🙂
Nice recipe. I find it difficult to roll out as the pastry breaks easily and looks dry. I wonder what did I not do right.
Taste is ok., but the flakes aren’t evident.
Is Suzhou pastry difficult to master ?
Hi Ban Ling, the pastry is a bit at a crumbly side. You can chill both of the doughs in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour and that should help you to roll them out better. This is not considered a difficult pastry I don’t think.
Would it be possible to get the recipe for the dough in cups instead of grams?
Thank you so much. Just looking at the pictures make me sooo hungry 😁
Hi Lei, I’ve included the cups measurements but please note that they are just estimates because it’s really hard to be precise with cups measurements, so I have to round up some numbers 🙂
So these are SUPER TINY, LOL! I have tried making these with olive oil and softened butter and I think the texture with butter is better. It hold it up more together (for the oil dough). The only thing I needed to do was to chill the oil dough for a bit so it won’t be too crumbly.
Question – any reason you didn’t do any egg wash on these? I saw another recipe that uses egg wash so they will brown nicely. Thoughts?
ha…ha..yes, these are tiny versions. The dough with oil is a bit more difficult to work with but it’s more flaky, I guess it’s personal preference too. There are versions that are brushed with egg wash (like the Shanghai mooncake), this version is usually not brushed with egg wash, but you can certainly do so if you want too.
Marvellina, may I know why has this recipe skipped the vinegar…? On the the teochew mooncake, will the result be the same by omitting vinegar?
Love your recipe!!! Thx for sharing
Hi Linda, yes, this Suzhou mooncake recipe is slightly different with the Teochew mooncake, though to be honest, either one will work on either recipe too. This Suzhou mooncake is still flaky even without the vinegar 🙂 this Suzhou mooncake uses cooking oil instead of fat like lard, shortening or coconut oil, the dough is a bit softer on this one but yields a flaky crust too.