Place the cooked chestnuts, coconut milk, sugar and salt in a food processor or high-speed blender.

Blend until very smooth. Try not to add additional water at first. If the mixture is too thick for your blender, add water just one tablespoon at a time. The less water you add, the less you will need to evaporate later.

Add the vegetable oil and blend again until fully incorporated.

Mix the flour with 20 g water until completely smooth, then stir it into the chestnut mixture. Add the coconut flakes.

Transfer the filling to a wide microwave-safe bowl.

Microwave at around 700–800 W for 2 minutes, remove and stir thoroughly. Repeat until the mixture begins to thicken.

Once it becomes noticeably thicker, reduce the cooking time to 1 minute at a time, stirring well after each interval.

Towards the end, microwave for only 30 seconds at a time. This is important because chestnuts can go from beautifully soft to too dry surprisingly quickly.

The filling is ready when it comes together into a soft mass that holds its shape without flowing. It should still feel soft while hot.

Allow it to cool completely before dividing and rolling into balls.

Combine the glutinous rice flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt in a microwave-safe bowl.

Gradually whisk in the milk until completely smooth. Add the vegetable oil and vanilla, if using, and whisk again.

For an especially smooth mooncake skin, pass the batter through a fine sieve.

Cover the bowl loosely with a microwave-safe lid or plate.

Microwave at approximately 800 W for 2 minutes.

Remove the bowl and stir thoroughly with a silicone spatula. Some parts will already be thick and sticky while others may still be liquid. Mix them together as well as possible.

Return to the microwave for 1 minute and mix again.

From this point, microwave for 30–45 seconds at a time, mixing between each interval, until there is no raw white batter remaining and the dough looks cooked and slightly translucent.

Depending on your microwave and the shape of your bowl, the total cooking time will usually be around 4–6 minutes. Other microwave snow-skin methods similarly cook the batter in short intervals and stir between them so the flour cooks evenly. Food Network

While the dough is still hot, add the 20 g unsalted butter.

Fold and knead it into the dough with a spatula until the butter has been completely absorbed.

Once cool enough to handle, put on food-safe gloves and knead briefly until the dough becomes smooth, supple and elastic.

Cover immediately so it doesn't dry out.

Because these mooncakes aren't baked after shaping, don't dust them with raw glutinous rice flour.

Toast a few tablespoons of glutinous rice flour in a dry pan over low heat, stirring constantly, until cooked, then allow it to cool completely. Cooked glutinous rice flour is commonly used for dusting snow-skin mooncakes so they release cleanly from the mould. The Woks of Life

Use as little as possible—you want to prevent sticking without leaving a thick white coating on your mooncakes.

First, make sure both the filling and dough are completely cool.

Weigh the finished chestnut filling before deciding how many mooncakes to make, since its final weight will depend on how much moisture evaporated during cooking.

Roll the filling into smooth balls.

Divide the snow-skin dough into equal portions and keep them covered while you work.

Flatten one piece of dough into a disc, keeping the centre slightly thicker than the edges. Place a chestnut-coconut ball in the centre and gently bring the dough up around the filling.

Pinch to seal and roll gently between your palms.

Dust the mooncake very lightly with cooked glutinous rice flour. Dust the inside of your mooncake mould as well, then tap out all the excess.

Place the ball into the mould and press firmly onto a flat surface to create the pattern.

Lift the mould and gently release your mooncake.

And that's it—no baking required.