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Heart pie is a Chinese pastry with a flaky crust and winter melon and spice filling. Legends surround its origins and it was traditionally eaten at weddings. It is now an everyday treat in China.
A heart pie is a Chinese pastry made with a crunchy, flaky crust and a filling of winter melon and spices. The pies are made using only a few ingredients, giving them a sweet, yet tart and slightly spicy flavor. Legends about the origins of the cake’s name vary in China and other Far Eastern countries. While the small cakes remain popular in China, the cake’s popularity has declined in other regions of the Far East.
The outside of a heart pie has a flaky crust made from water- or oil-based dough. It is brushed with an egg wash before cooking and the delicate crust literally melts on the tongue when eaten. The filling is made from the flesh of a winter melon which is sweet when unripe but can be bitter when ripe. In addition to the winter melon, the recipe calls for a powder made from fennel seeds, licorice root, cloves and star anise, which gives it an irresistible and delicate blend of flavours.
A legend related to the love cake involves a poor couple living in China. The husband’s father falls seriously ill and the couple exhaust all resources trying to help him recover. When the father doesn’t get better, the wife sells herself into slavery to pay for her care. The husband is saddened by the loss of his wife and makes little cakes to earn enough money to buy her back. He called her little cakes a “wife cake” or “lover cake” for her.
Another legend concerns a famous dim sum chef working in Chinalane who decides to go home to his wife in Chiu Chao. Once home, he made a lot of dim sum for his wife and none of them liked her. He preferred a winter melon pie her mother baked to any of the sums he baked for her. She made him the little cakes to prove they were better and he loved them so much that he got the recipe back from Chinalane. The restaurant dubbed the pies a “wife pie” after the chef’s wife.
These tasty cakes were traditionally eaten by guests at wedding celebrations in China, but are now eaten as an everyday treat. In China, heart cake is eaten for breakfast, afternoon tea, or just as a general snack. Pastries were once common in many Far Eastern countries, but consumption has declined.
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