Suzhou-Style Mooncake

The Suzhou-style mooncake is built on a flaky pastry of wheat flour and fat that bakes into crisp layers around a sweet or savoury filling. Sweet versions use rose, red bean or salted pine-nut paste, while the savoury fresh-pork mooncake, eaten warm, is the best-known of all.

It is one of the two great schools of Chinese mooncake, rooted in the Suzhou area and distinguished by its flaky crust from the soft-skinned Cantonese style; it is the traditional Mid-Autumn treat of the Jiangnan region.

Eaten around the Mid-Autumn Festival, the pork version is best fresh from the oven, shedding flaky crumbs over a juicy filling, while the sweet ones are savoured slowly with tea.

Crisp, clearly layered pastry in both sweet and savoury lines, with the juicy fresh-pork version standing out, makes it the archetype of Suzhou's festive baking.