Wife's Biscuit - 老婆餅

Since i was into this mooncake making mood, so i went to look for other chinese pastries recipes. And i chance upon this wife's biscuit recipe from Florence blog, which is one of my favourite chinese pastries. Since i have all the ingredients at home, so i decided to give it a try. Initially i was still quite worried about how it's going to taste. Because i have tasted alot of wife's cake, but so far my favourite is still the Hong Kong - Yuan Lung Wife's biscuit. Because other wife's biscuit is either too sweet, or the taste is not so nice. But this wife's biscuit, to my surprise, taste very very good! I am not exagerating. Because my husband who don't usually like this type of pastries said that it's good! My mum likes it too and she commented that it's even better than some in the market, because it's not too sweet. Thanks Florence for this great recipe!

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Wife's Biscuit

Ingredients:

Water dough
100g cake flour
25g icing sugar
25g butter (cubed) or shortening or margarine or lard
40g water
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Oil Dough
100g cake flour
45g-50g shortening or lard (will try with 50g next time)

Filling
50g Candied winter melon (chopped to bite size)
55g-60g castor sugar (i used 55g and it's just nice)
70g commercialized cooked glutinous rice flour (Koh Fun)
18g shortening
15g roasted white sesame seeds
12g dessicated coconut
120g boiled drinking water (at room temp)
Egg wash1 yolk + 1 tsp water + pinch of salt
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Method

Filling:
Put all ingredients into a big bowl, mix till well combined. Divide filling into 12 equal portions.
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Water dough:
1)Rub butter into sieved flour and icing sugar till bread crumb state.
2) Add in water till a piable dough is formed.
3) Cling wrap dough and rest for 30 - 45 minutes.
4) Divide dough into 12 equal portions.
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Oil dough:
1) Rub shortening into flour till well mixed.
2) Cling wrap and leave it aside to rest for 30 - 45 minutes.
3) Divide dough into 12 equal portions.
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Method
1) Flatten a piece of water dough and wrap in the oil dough.
2) Press and roll out dough into a longish flat piece with a rolling pin.
3) Roll it up Swiss roll-style.
4) Turn the dough 90 degrees and then roll it into a longish flat piece.
5) Roll it up Swiss roll-style again.
6) Pinch the 2 side edges and shape it into a flat circular shape.
7) Put a piece of filling in the centre of the dough and wrapped it.
8) Flatten it and make 2 snips into the dough using a pair of scissors.
9) Apply egg wash.
10) Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 20–25 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: I baked mine for 20 min at middle rack than transfer to top rack for 3min. But i find it was too dark. So perhaps can try 18min at middle rack and 3min at top rack instead.

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