#yam paste

We also bought the Crispy Yam with Whole Egg Yolk (酥皮单黄芋泥) Teochew mooncakes. The restaurant sells mini version of the crispy yam mooncakes 🥮 too, but these comes without the salted egg yolk. We didn’t buy the latter as we find the yam paste to skin ratio not to our liking. Eaten on the day of purchase, the flaky pastry is shattering crispy, revealing a layer of sweetened, smooth yam (taro) paste surrounding a lovely rich eggy salted yolk.

Best eaten fresh on the day the Crispy Yam with Whole Egg Yolk (酥皮单黄芋泥) mooncakes are made. But if you can only eat it the next day, pop it into the oven at 180 °C for about 15 minutes to crisp up the pastry and warm up the yam paste inside. I know the instructions said to heat it at 130 °C for 5 minutes but that barely warm even up the inside of the mooncake 🥮. After that prepare a plate or kitchen towel because when you take that bite, the flaky pastry layers shattered into crumbles. As the velvety and sweet, fragrant yam paste with it lightly salted egg yolk takes you along through the mid-autumn night.

Last year the price was S$70 for a box of 4s but this year it went up to S$79. Luckily, they are offering a 30% early bird discount, so we paid S$55.30 for the Crispy Yam with Whole Egg Yolk Mooncake (酥皮单黄芋泥月饼). The extra crispy and intricate layers of pastry demand careful handling. As you can see from the cross section, the egg yolk is well positioned in the centre of the yam/taro paste wrapped in a thin layer of pastry and deep-fried. As you bite into a piece, you felt the pastry shattering followed by the semi-sweet smooth yam paste and the slightly salty and rich yolk.

The Teochew Yam Pastry with Single Yolk (潮州单黄芋泥月饼) came in a glossy royal blue box. Each of the four compartments contained a piece of the flaking spiral pastry packed in its own individual box. Lifting the pastry out of its container, there is this crust of white sesame seeds on the base and along the bottom edge. Sliced it in half and the outer crust shattered but the plastic knife met resistance when it reached the salted egg yolk inside, not a good sign though. Further dividing it to quarters just confirmed the truth. The salted egg yolk is over baked during the preparation stage that it had developed a tough outer layer around the yolk. Instead of a crumbly yolk, you get rubbery pieces of egg among the smooth yam paste. The pine nuts in the yam paste and sesame seeds crust on the outside lends a nutty fragrant to the flaking pastry shell. Overall, it was a good eat letdown by one of the main ingredients. This set me thinking if I want to take a risk and buy it next year.

Since the above cannot make the cut, I will just stick with East Ocean Teochew Restaurant (东海潮州酒家). The Crispy Yam with Whole Egg Yolk Mooncake (酥皮单黄芋泥月饼) is best eaten within three days of purchase but if you can’t finish them in time, just store them in the fridge. To refresh the pastries, covered them loosely in aluminium foil and bake at 200 °C (392°F) for about 20-25 minutes direct from fridge. This cause the pastry to be crispy again and the warm yam paste tasted more mellow and fragrant than at room temperature.

To get that spiral flaky pastry shell, two types of dough (water/oil) are need when making the Crispy Yam Mooncake. The yam or taro paste is smooth and velvety, sweetened with just a little sugar. As the filling contains moisture, I suggest toasting it to crisp up the pastry and to consume it with three days. It pairs well with a cup of Chinese tea or as I have it here, less sweet milk tea. In case some of you are interested in making it, I attached a how-to-make video (not mine).

I was attracted to their Ginkgo Taro Tart (S$1.50) filled with lavender coloured yam paste. The tart shell is thin and crumbly which fall apart as I sliced into it to reveal a single ginkgo nut. I enjoyed the buttery crust but the mildly sweet paste do seem to be creamy/floury and lack the prominent yam flavour I am expecting. Maybe replacing the ginkgo nut with a few cubes of yam would have make this a better yam tart.

The Apple Tart (S$1.50) with its cinnamon-scented apples that are sweet and carry hint of tartness came topped with sandy crumbles. I would enjoy this over a cup of hot tea for a late afternoon snack.

If you can resist and not eat this Teochew Mooncake (潮州月饼) on the day of purchase, it is best to reheat it in oven to crisp up the flaky crust. Make sure to consume it within 3 days else this deep-fried festival treat might go rancid. Trust me, it tasted so much better when warm and the aroma is divine.

With alternating layers of pastry that gives an illusion of infinite layers, it is no wonder that it’s nicknamed the Thousand Layered Mooncake (千层芋泥月饼). The below how-to video precisely showed you how this is alternating layers are achieved using water and oil doughs. Their impressive appearance makes them perfect for gifting on any occasion.