Lao Po Bing: Wife Cake, or Wife's Cake?

I could never figure out whether the lao po bing ought to be translated as 'Wife's Cake', or the more sinister-sounding 'Wife Cake'. And since polygamy is generally frowned upon in this day and age, I'm going to forego the option of 'Concubine('s) Cake' altogether.

As I grow older, I find myself becoming more and more inclined towards the traditional sweets of my mother culture. Which also happens to be my mother's culture. Ha...haha. Anyway, what I mean is - where once I would have turned my nose up at anything purchased at the local Asian bakery in favour of a dry, stale brownie from the school canteen, I now spend hours on end searching for the perfect lao po bing recipe.

I think a brief explanation of what the lao po bing is would prove helpful to those unfamiliar with this sweet, Chinese pastry. Historical legends and derivatives aside, this is essentially flaky lard pastry wrapped around a filling of glutinous rice and candied winter melon, with a few other, variable ingredients thrown into the mix. As is the case with many Chinese pastries, lard is used instead of butter.

Apparently, authentic winter melon filling is extremely time-consuming and expensive to make. I made these, filling included, within an hour, and had them out of the oven after 25 minutes. And these tasted exactly like the ones I've tried from Asian bakeries, both here in Australia and overseas. In fact, I would call these ones the best Wife('s) Cakes I've ever eaten. 老王卖瓜，自卖自夸, yes? (A Chinese proverb describing someone who brags about his/her own wares :D) And hey, maybe authentic ain't necessarily the most tasty. I certainly prefer my grandmother's rendition of spaghetti bolognese (canned pasta sauce, mince and loads of tasty cheese) to the ones I've tried in Florence.

So, 1.5 hours of work later and I'm chowing down on freshly baked  lao po bing. There's something to be said for being well-versed in the art of baking. Maybe it'll help me fetch a nice husband one day ;P

Recipe for Wife('s) Cake/lao po bing

I'll only include the ingredients I used here since there are so many tutorials on the internet detailing how to actually  make the pastries. I'll make sure to take 'making of' pictures the next time and stop scabbing off other people's blogs for my baking posts. Just this once, though, please forgive me my laziness and refer to sheetz's amazing pictorial guide.

Ingredients (makes 8 wife cakes)

For the filling:

200g candied winter melon
20g toasted white sesame seeds
20g toasted dessicated coconuts
60g cooked glutinous rice flour (something called koh fun; found at Asian grocery stores)
80g water
4 tsp oil

For the 'outer' dough:

150g bread flour
1 tblsp caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp golden syrup (I actually used agave nectar since that's all I had!)
50g lard, melted
1/8 tsp vanilla essence
75g water

For the 'inner' dough:

80g all purpose flour
65g lard, solid

For the glaze:

1 egg yolk
Pinch of salt