Teochew Traditional Moon cake (潮汕朥饼）



When I told Facebook friends of members that this is my favourite childhood moon cake, many seems to read in doubt and some claimed that it looked like the marriage cakes. Yes, in fact it is a smaller version of Teochew marriage cakes.


When I further told them that it is a very traditional Teochew dialect moon cake, some disclaim that “it is Teochew Moon cake”  because most  Teochew moon cake should be the yam moon cake with spiral flaky skin.


I really have a hard time to justify my moon cake. 2 days later, I  decided to prepare some moon cake which is much smaller in size and usually sold in a white tube wrapped with red paper. Insides the tube, there are 10 small moon cakes which my mum used to buy this for praying to the Goddess of moon. With this packaging, some are able to recall the moon cake  and said that the cake  brings them fond memories.


What I am sharing today is a type of traditional flaky skin moon cake which in existence well before the existence of the yam spiral moon cake. It usually comes with the white mung beans fillings and was called “la pia” or “朥饼“。 During the time when my late father worked for a Teochew bakery, then , it was prepared using lard as one of the important ingredients. However, in recent years, most bakery have started using lard and use vegetable oil instead.


For those who understand Mandarin, it was written in an article that the moon cake of Chaozhou and Shantou are characterized by its thin flaky skin and luxurious thick mung bean fillings. For those who are interested in this traditional moon cake, you may want to refer to the link before to read more about the various regional variations of this Teochew traditional moon cake.

“潮汕朥饼，也称潮式月饼，是早已扬誉中外的潮汕名饼食。潮州朥饼色泽金黄鲜艳、皮酥薄脆，豆沙馅厚润滑，口味清甜，肥而不腻。中秋节品尝月饼是我们中华民族千百年来的习俗。不过潮州人却喜欢在中秋佳节之时，边冲功夫茶，边品尝别有风味的潮州人称之为朥饼的本地月饼. (Source: http://www.gdxcw.cn/index.php?app=resource&mod=Travels&act=show&id=55)”


Picture courtesy of: http://www.gdxcw.cn/index.php?app=resource&mod=Travels&act=show&id=55


Per Wikipedia,

Chaoshan (Teochew)-style moon cake: This is another flaky crust variety, but is larger in size than the Suzhou variety. It is close in diameter to the Cantonese style, but thinner. A variety of fillings are used, but the aroma of lard after roasting is emphasised.” (Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake)


This is not a difficult recipe and rather basic. There are still many variations for this Teochew moon cake and some have candied winter melon, pork belly, tangerine peels, sesame seeds and etc. If you have never tasted this before, it taste exactly like the sweet “tausa pia” commonly sold in the Teochew bakeries.



Recipe: adapted from: Teochew Style Moon cake

Servings: Prepared about 4 moon cakes of about  4 inches diameter


Water pastry

  • 100 grams of all purpose flour or plain flour
  • 50 grams of vegetable shortening or Crisco shortening or lard
  • 50 grams of water

Oil Pastry

  • 100 grams of all purpose flour or plain flour
  • 65 grams of vegetable shortening or Crisco shortening or lard


  • 300 grams of  mung bean paste
  • 50 grams of pumpkin seeds (optional)



  • Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.


  • Mix all ingredients for the water pastry in a bowl, mix and knead until it form a pliable dough. Divide into 6 balls. Set aside. Perform the same for the oil pastry.


  • Put the mung beans paste and pumpkin seeds in a bowl, knead until well mixed and divide into 6 balls.

  • Wrap one ball of oil pastry with the water pastry. Seal the edges and shape it into a ball.


  • Use a rolling pin to roll it flat, that roll again into a Swiss roll pattern . Roll again flat and roll again into a Swiss roll pattern. Repeat this rolling pattern 3-4 times. Put a ball of filling on top of the skin,


  • Seal the edges, shape like a ball and use a rolling pin to lightly roll it flat. Chop on top of the cake red chop of your choice. Repeat the same for the remaining 5 cakes. Bake in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes.



This is the type of moon cake that capture my heart. It brings fond memories and my niece still bought this for me, deep frozen in the fridge and passed it to me when she meet me months later.


In recent years, I have difficulty to get this bigger size moon cake as its popularity have been dwindling rapidly. For the smaller tube type of packaging, I have not bought for years because it usually comes with a very thick skin, little and hard fillings . Some of these moon cakes may have been prepared  months ago and by the time it reach the customer, most of the moon cake are not fresh and start to harden. However, homemade freshly baked moon cake is a totally different story. It is flaky with lots of fresh fillings. I have decided to blog this rather niche moon cake to satisfy my cravings.





