SHF 11 - Capuccino Cheese Jelly Mooncake

It's Sugar High Friday time, a wonderful event started by the Domestic Goddess where everyone shares a sweet based on a theme. If you want to know more about the past events, click here to see those fantastic desserts. This month, the theme is coffee and is hosted by lovesicily.

I must admit, I had great qualms about doing something with coffee. Although I love coffee, I rarely venture into any coffee flavoured desserts as Splashie Boy hates coffee and it's smell (another of his strange quirks!). After flicking through my cookbooks, I decided since the mid-autumn lunar festival was just round the corner (September 18), I will take this opportunity to make cappuccino cheese jelly mooncake.

Mooncakes are a big thing in Malaysia and it's essential for celebrating the mid-autumn lunar festival. Usually it's eaten on the night of the festival while you enjoy the moon together with tiny cups of Chinese tea. Nowadays, mooncakes are sold way before the festival (they start almost one and half months ahead of the festival date) as restaurants and businesses jump on the bandwagon to sell them. Some say these businesses can earn their profits for the whole year just by baking and selling mooncakes!

As variety is the spice of life, Malaysians have various types of mooncakes to choose from. The traditional ones have a thin skin with fillings of lotus paste, red beans and nuts. You can choose to have them with a salted duck egg yolk or even a double egg yolk. Then there is the baked Shanghai mooncake where crispy pastry encase the filling. The Teochews have their own type which is made from yam paste and yolk. Also encased in a pastry filling, it's deep fried three times to make it crispy and brown. Then there is the snow skin (ping peh) mooncakes which are unbaked and made from glutinous flour.

New fangled varieties consist of ice-cream mooncakes made from Haagen-Daz ice-cream and jelly mooncakes. Just like the traditional mooncake, these jellies come in either round or square shapes with the skin covering the various types of fillings. You can choose to have them with the egg yolk or without.

Although it was my first time making jelly mooncake, it was relatively easy as long as you follow the recipe's instructions. Not sure why but my filling is just enough for only two to three moulds rather than the five stated in the recipe so I had to double the portion. The jelly mooncake turned out really well and I was totally amazed on how it looked. It really did resemble the real thing and it tasted oh so good! The coffee complemented the cheese filling so well. I managed to persuade Splashie Boy to eat some as I was really paranoid that only I felt it was nice and he also liked it. His office colleagues also gave their thumbs up on the mooncake so this is a real winner.

Cappuccino Cheese Jelly Mooncake (from Flavours)

For the jelly egg yolks
1/2 cup water
50g sugar
1 teaspoon agar-agar powder
2 knotted pandan leaves
1/3 cup thick coconut milk
1/2 tablespoon custard powder (I used Bird's)
1/8 teaspoon orange-red colouring
Equipment: Ball ice-cube trays

Bring water, sugar, agar-agar powder and pandan leaves to boil. Lower heat and add coconut milk, custard powder and colouring. Stir with a hand whisk and continue to cook until it thickens. Once the mixture starts to bubble, turn off heat and pour into the moulds.

Pour the jelly mixture up to brim of the lower ice tray and cover with the upper tray. Expect the mixture to overflow from the top. Place a heavy object on the ice tray to keep the cover in place and leave jelly to set completely, about 20 minutes.

Refrigerate for a further 30 minutes before removing the jelly egg yolks from the mould. Leave in a bowl for later use.

For the filling
3 1/2 tablespoons water
2/3 cup UHT milk
50 grams sugar
1 teaspoon agar-agar powder
50 grams Philadelphia Cream Cheese, beat with hand whisk or electric beater to soften
Equipment: Round tart moulds

In a pot, bring the first four ingredients to a boil over slow heat. Make sure the heat is not too high or else your milk will curdle. Add the softened cream cheese and stir continuously with a hand whisk to prevent lumps. Turn off the heat. Strain the mixture and pour into a measuring jug. Pour into the individual tart moulds and leave to the set completely. Once set, place in the fridge to chill for about thirty minutes.

If you are using jelly egg yolks, add one egg yolk inside the mould after you have filled it with the cream cheese mixture. Make sure it is in the middle.

Coffee jelly skin
1 3/4 cup water
70g sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons agar-agar powder
2 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee (mixed with 3 1/2 tablespoons hot water)
1 tablespoon Kahlua (optional)
1 teaspoon coffee emulco
Equipment: Round jelly mooncake moulds

In a pot, bring the first three ingredients to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the coffee granules, Kahlua and coffee emulco, stirring continuously.

Pour a 1/2 cm layer of coffee jelly mix into round moulds. Allow to cool until almost set (3/4 set). Place prepared cappuccino cheese filling in the center of the mould. Top up with the coffee skin mixture and allow to set completely before chilling in the refridgerator for another thirty minutes.

Unmould and refrigerate until ready to serve.