How to Make: Teochew mooncakes, a gloriously flaky recipe from Amara Hotel’s Peony Jade

We all know what to expect when September rolls around every year: Mooncakes. Lots of mooncakes.

Mid-Autumn Festival is probably one of the most beloved occasions for many Singaporeans, after all.

For some, the bustling community celebrations are what they look forward to. To the kids, the adorable paper lanterns are the highlights. But for most of us, the return of mooncakes is undoubtedly what gets us excited.

Who can resist the nostalgic taste of lotus paste and salted egg yolks? Or the delightfully sweet and intricate snow skin mooncakes?

But for us, there is probably not enough love given to the gloriously flaky Teochew mooncakes.

What are Teochew mooncakes?

Traditionally, mooncakes are a pastry enjoyed by the Chinese during the Mid-Autumn Festival, best enjoyed with tea, while moon-watching.

Most people might not know, but the ubiquitous brown baked pastries that are usually referred to as “mooncakes” in Singapore are not the only kind.

Mooncakes can look quite different, due to different preparation methods across various regions of China, where it originated from — there are Beijing mooncakes, Shanghai mooncakes and Teochew mooncakes, too.

There’s even a uniquely Singaporean “Hainanese mooncake” that was invented here in the 1960s!

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But the mooncakes we are most familiar with follow the traditional Cantonese style, which are baked and sport a sweet doughy skin, hiding a glut of (usually) lotus paste and salted egg yolks.

In contrast, Teochew mooncakes boast a satisfyingly airy and flaky outer crust and are stuffed full of creamy orh nee (yam paste) filling, instead of lotus paste.

Interestingly, in order to achieve its flaky exterior, Teochew mooncakes are deep-fried — instead of being baked — to ensure a golden brown pastry crust.

So I guess you can say they are fried mooncakes!

Peony Jade’s speciality

Compared to Cantonese mooncakes, good Teochew mooncakes are a harder find in Singapore, with fewer restaurants that have the expertise in making the pastry.

That’s why Peony Jade’s signature flaky Teochew mooncakes (from S$80 for a box of four) are such a wonderful find.

The restaurant has been in operation since 2004, when it first opened at Clarke Quay, and was even awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2016.

What makes it even better is that the Amara Hotel restaurant has a kitchen department dedicated to dim sum. Not only does the team specialise in making Teochew mooncakes, it also makes all of them, from scratch!

The dim sum department is led by 37-year-old executive dim sum chef Steve Ang, who has been working in the kitchens for 20 years prior to joining Peony Jade in 2024.

According to chef Steve, the restaurant’s signature Teochew mooncake is based on the original 1988 recipe from the Crown Prince Hotel, a luxury hotel founded in the 1980s that operated in Orchard.

Those who aren’t familiar with Teochew mooncakes might be pondering the choice of orh nee and a flaky crust rather than lotus paste and baked dough skin — aren’t the components wildly different?

Chef Steve explains: “Orh nee has always been a choice of ingredient for many Teochew classics, since it had a natural sweetness and was easily cultivated, affordable, highly nutritious, and versatile.”  

“The flaky layers are meant to represent blessings of health, wealth, joy, and fortune for everyone who savours the mooncake,” he adds.

Best when fresh and handmade

So what exactly does one need to look for in a good version of the pastry? 

According to chef Steve: “Freshness is very important for a good Teochew mooncake.”

First off, freshly fried Teochew mooncakes sport soft and flaky skin that’s basically as light as feathers.

The orh nee filling should also be fresh and preservative-free, with no added sugar, since quality yams are already inherently sweet, and fried with shallot oil to make it nice and rich.

“Since yam is naturally dense with water, the filling would turn sour after three days as the moisture is released,” he adds, on why freshness is paramount.

Hence, Peony Jade’s Teochew mooncakes are made extremely fresh, from scratch and only prepared on the day of collection itself.

The team goes in early in the day to fry the yam and prepare the skin, before blending the yam into a silky paste, wrapping up the mooncakes and finally, frying them.

The entirely handmade process ensures the optimum freshness for customers, who are also recommended to consume them within two days.

While it sounds like a simple process, it’s not as easy as it looks.

“It requires a bit of craftsmanship to get the perfect skin with the right ratio. Even if you do, the frying is extremely tricky, since the salted egg yolk can cause the filling to go bad, if improperly fried,” he recalls.

Of course, we had to have a taste of Peony Jade’s signature Teochew mooncakes ourselves and were left impressed — everything was just as chef Steve promised.

The orh nee is velvety smooth, fragrant and marked by a delectable earthy yam sweetness, which is well contrasted by a burst of salinity from the salted egg yolks.

More importantly, it’s the oh-so delicate and sexily flaky skin that charmed us. Undoubtedly, one of the best Teochew mooncake skins we’ve come across — perhaps one of the best flaky pastry skins in general.

Besides the Teochew mooncakes, chef Steve also persuaded us to try some of Peony Jade’s other signature mooncakes, including its snow skin durian mooncakes, made with 100% pure durian filling.

The durian mooncakes come in two levels of intensity, using two top quality durian varieties for the filling: Black Gold old tree mao shan wang (S$93.80 for a box of four) or Emerald Black Thorn (S$138 for a box of four).

The deadline to pre-order for pick-up or delivery for the mooncakes is on Sep 13, so order ASAP!

How to make Teochew mooncakes

Step 1: Prepare the ingredients

You’ll need two sets of ingredients needed for the Teochew mooncake crust — one for a “water skin” and one for an “oil skin”.

For the oil skin, you’ll need:

• 600g Hong Kong flour
• 160g high protein flour
• 160g shortening
• 20g sugar

As for the water skin, you’ll need:

• 500g Hong Kong flour
• 250g shortening
• 320g water

You’ll also need the following ingredients for the filling:

• 1kg yam
• 10 cloves of shallots
• 200g oil 

Step 2: Make the filling

Wash and peel the yam, then cut them into slices and steam for about 25 to 30 minutes. After that, press the softened yam into paste.

Let the paste cool down and the moisture evaporate completely, then put into a mixer and mix until a smooth consistency, while periodically adding water.

Prepare shallot oil by first heating the oil over low heat, then adding in the shallots and fry until golden brown. Once done, separate the oil and shallots.

After that, cook the yam paste over a low flame, stirring continuously and adding shallot oil part by part until the yam paste absorbs the oil entirely and it thickens. Put it aside and let it cool down.

Step 3: Mix the crust ingredients

To make the Teochew mooncake, you need to first make the water-skin dough by mixing Hong Kong flour and high protein flour together, before whisking in the shortening. 

Following that, add in the water and knead everything together, and wrap the finished dough in plastic to rest for at least 35 minutes.

For the oil skin dough, simply whisk everything together into a ball and wrap in plastic to rest.

Step 4: Combine the dough

Once, the doughs are rested, divide the water crust dough into 110g portions and the oil skin dough into 90g portions.

With each portion, flatten the water skin dough and place the oil skin dough onto it. Then, fully wrap them into balls.

Step 5: Prep the dough for filling

Spread flour over a surface and roll each dough parcel into a flat oval shape, then roll up the dough towards you into a curled-up log. Cover the rolled-up dough with plastic wrap and let them rest for 20 minutes.

After resting, cut each dough parcel in half and cover with plastic wrap to prevent it from dying.

Step 6: Add the filling

Weigh out 110g of orh nee for each portion. If you want to add salted egg yolk, flatten the orh nee, insert the yolk and wrap around it.

Similarly, spread flour over a surface, then place the cut dough parcels onto it, with the cut surface facing upwards, then roll it out into a circular shape.

Once done, put the filling in the middle of each dough circle and wrap over it fully, sealing it at the bottom, before putting it in the fridge for 20 minutes before frying.

Each mooncake should weigh around 330g to 350g.

Step 7: Fry the Teochew mooncakes

While waiting for the Teochew mooncakes to be ready, preheat oil to 150c. When 20 minutes are up, they will be ready for frying.

Slowly submerge the Teochew mooncakes and take them out, repeating it four to five times while rotating them. When the layers start becoming visible, fully submerge them. 

Fry for eight minutes then raise the oil temperature to 165-170 degrees Celsius, and let them fry for another four minutes. Then, they are done and can be taken out!

For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on the best restaurants to go for an oishii Japanese feast and the chicest steakhouses to go for a bougie night out!

You can make a reservation at Peony Jade via Chope.

You can also book a ride to Peony Jade at Amara Hotel to collect the Teochew mooncakes if you want to pre-order!