Taro cake 芋頭酥

This is a pretty popular Taiwanese pastry. People have it all year long, but it becomes a substitute for the moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival in recent years. Dear Carol has a wonderful blog that includes both the detailed instructions and pictures. It is a special way to shape the wrapper, so that it can show the marble patterns around the cake. Excellent!! 

Taro cake (makes 12)

A. Wrapper Part A:

All-purpose flour 200 g

Confectioner's sugar 15 g

Butter 70 g (room temperature)

Cold water 105 g

1. Sift the flour.

2. Mix the Confectioner's sugar with the butter.

3. Add the flour and roughly mix together.

4. Add the cold water and mix until it comes together as a ball.

5. Cover with plastic wrap and rest for 40 min.

B. Wrapper Part B:

Cake flour 160 g

Butter 80 g

A few drops of purple food coloring

1. Sift the flour

2. Add the butter and food coloring

3. Mix until it comes to a ball (do not overmix)

4. Cover and rest in the refrigerator

C. Taro filling (45 g/ each):

Taro 500 g

Sugar 80 g

Butter 30 g

Powder milk (or powder cream) 20 g

1. Remove the skin of the taro and cut into small pieces.

2. Steam on high heat for 20 min (until a toothpick can easily pierce through)

3. Mash the steamed taro.

4. Mix all the ingredients together.

5. Let cool.

D. Making the taro cake (please go to Carol's website for instruction pictures)

1. Divide the wrapper Part A into 6 pieces (65 g each) (30 g = 1 oz). Shape into balls.

2. Divide the wrapper Part B into 6 pieces (40 g each). Shape into balls.

3. Press the Part A flat and wrap around a portion of Part B.

4. Gently press it and roll it into an oval shape thin pieces (about 4 inches long). Be gentle, don't break the filling. This step is to make Part A and Part B come together.

5. Roll it up from the short side. Cover with plastic wrap and rest for 10 min. (Everytime you manipulate the dough, you have to let it rest for a few minutes in order to roll it again easily. Otherwise the gluten in the flour makes it tough to handle.)

6. Roll out the dough into an oval shape thin pieces (about 4 inches long). Roll it up from the short side. Cover and rest for 20 min.

7. Divide one portion of the dough into 2 pieces from the center.

8. Press down each piece slightly and roll it out into a round wrapper (about 4 inches in diameter).

9. Put a portion of the taro filling in (45 g/ each). Shape it into a ball, sealed side down.

10. Bake at 170 C (340 F) for 25 min.