Over Chinese New Year (around late January this year), I was introduced to a Taiwanese pastry called sun cakes. This pastry has a maltose filling, and according to www.ifood.tv/network/suncake, they originated from Taichung, Taiwan. However, they were not called ‘suncakes’ until Taiwanese bakery ‘Sunbooth‘ sold them by its name and made them popular.
Ingredients Used and Suncake Recipe Overview
The sun cake is made of an outer pastry dough which is called a water-oil dough and is made of flour, butter, sugar and water , as well as an inner pastry dough or oil dough prepared from flour and butter. The filling is prepared with sugar, maltose, butter, salt, flour and milk . This is wrapped into the pastry, which is then pressed with the hand to make pie like shapes, which are baked in a non-stick baking trays.
From: www.ifood.tv/network/suncake
Suncakes can be bought at most Asian grocery stores. And from what I’ve been told, this is the authentic brand to get:
Individually wrapped sun cakes allow them to last quite a long time.
So how do they taste? Well first of all, they are super flaky!
…it gets everywhere!!
The pastry itself is on the dryer side, as it seems to lack enough oil or butter often found in other similar Chinese pastries such as the ‘wife cake’ (winter melon filling).
The sun cake’s maltose filling is lightly sweet, and sets a mild tone to this dessert.
Hungry Cactus’ Verdict: B
I’m glad to have tried this Taiwanese maltose dessert. Even though the sun cakes were a tad dry, they make for a great dessert when paired with a hot cup of green tea! =) Maltose yumminess!!!