Perfect Crispy Layered Salted Egg Yolk Pastry
Talking about salted egg yolk pastry, we have to start with Chinese puff pastry snacks, which can be traced back to the Tang and Song dynasties. Chinese puff pastry is divided into open, semi-open, and closed layers. The salted egg yolk pastry we are discussing today belongs to the closed kind. In fact, salted egg yolk pastry is one type of Suzhou-style mooncake. Considering its popularity today, it has reached the peak status of Chinese desserts, with significance for Chinese people far exceeding that of traditional mooncakes. Salted egg yolk pastry mainly consists of the puff pastry shell and the filling. Let’s start with puff pastry preparation. Chinese pastry dough includes both water-oil dough and lard pastry. Ingredients for water-oil dough include all-purpose flour (medium gluten flour or Chinese pastry flour), fat, water, and fine sugar. You can substitute a 1:1 ratio of high-gluten and low-gluten flour for medium flour. Why not use only high-gluten or low-gluten flour? Using only high-gluten flour results in a dough with strong gluten, making it hard to roll out, while using only low-gluten flour results in weak gluten, so the dough cannot form thin layers to encase the lard pastry. Fat is also key to making puff pastry snacks. The first choice is homemade lard, rendered from pork fatback. It has excellent flakiness and a rich aroma. If you dislike the smell of lard, you can substitute it with butter, which gives salted egg yolk pastry a creamy fragrance. However, butter is slightly less effective for flakiness compared to lard. Margarine is not advisable as it contains a high amount of trans fats, which are harmful to health. ...
Ingredients
Steps
Baking: Preheat oven to 190°C (top and bottom heat). Bake at 180°C (top heat) and 170°C (bottom heat) in the middle-lower rack for about 25 minutes. Adjust time based on your oven.
Soak the salted duck eggs (with red clay coating) in water for a while and clean them thoroughly.
Crack open the duck eggs, remove the yolks, and take off the white membrane on the yolks (to remove the raw smell).
Place the yolks in a preheated oven at 180°C and bake for 3 minutes. Let them cool afterward. Baking removes the raw smell and allows the yolks to partially cook. Optionally, you may spray a little liquor over the warm yolks, but fresh salted yolks are typically not too smelly and can skip this step.
Combine water-oil dough ingredients in a mixing bowl. Blend into a dough using a spatula.
Use a stand mixer at medium speed (level 3) to knead the dough until smooth.
When the dough can be stretched into a thin, almost transparent film (80% gluten development), it’s ready. If you don’t have a mixer, hand kneading works as well.
Wrap the dough in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
Mix the lard pastry ingredients, initially using a spatula and then knead by hand until completely smooth.
Similarly, wrap the pastry dough and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll the bean paste filling into 25g portions and shape into rounds.
Flatten the bean paste slightly and wrap it around a salted egg yolk.
Seal the edges tightly to form a closed ball.
Divide the water-oil dough into 18g portions and round them into balls; let them rest.
Cover the resting dough balls with cling film to prevent them from drying out.
Divide the lard pastry into 12g portions.
Shape them into balls; let them rest too.
Roll out the water-oil dough into thin discs.
Wrap the lard pastry inside the thin water-oil dough disc, ensuring even thickness when sealing. Place it seam-side down. Cover with cling film to prevent drying out.
Ensure the seam is tightly sealed to prevent leakage. Given the time taken to prepare 10 portions, the first batch will naturally rest while completing the others, so you can roll out the first batch immediately after finishing.
Place the wrapped dough ball seam side up, slightly flatten it, and roll it into an oval.
Roll it up from one end, seam side up again, and roll into a longer shape. Roll up again seam side down, cover, and rest for 10 minutes. Skipping rest between rolling steps is fine.
Lightly sprinkle flour on a surface. For rested dough, fold both ends toward the center and flatten.
Use a rolling pin to roll it into a circular shape with thicker middle and thinner edges. Roll once upwards and downwards (don’t roll back and forth). Rotate 90° and repeat once. Avoid over-thinning to prevent cracking.
With smooth dough side facing out, wrap the egg yolk bean paste filling entirely. Seal tightly, rotating it with your hand to ensure roundness.
Ensure the seam is tightly sealed to avoid splitting during baking. Place the sealed side down on a baking tray in preparation for egg wash application.
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Brush a thin layer of egg yolk liquid over the dough; wait 5 minutes and brush a second layer for better color. Avoid thick application in one go.
Dip a fingertip in egg yolk liquid, then dip in black sesame seeds and press lightly on the pastry to place as topping.
Bake in the preheated oven, adjust the top heat to 180°C and bottom heat to 170°C. Place in the middle-lower rack for about 25 minutes.
Remove the pastries once the tops are golden to your liking.
Cool the pastries completely on a wire rack after removing them from the oven.
Arrange on a plate.
Take a bite and enjoy the crispy layers!