Traditional Chinese Peanut Cookie

Chinese New Year was round the corner. Where to get some CNY atmosphere other than baking some CNY cookies ? This year, I decided to try something new and chanced upon this recipe from MyKitchen101en on Facebook.

Original recipe for this Traditional Chinese Peanut Cookie here : 

Ingredients:

(Makes about 120)

350g raw blanch peanuts

300g plain flour

140g icing sugar 

1/4 tsp salt

150g Peanut oil

Ingredients for egg wash :

1 egg

1/2 tbsp plain water 

Method :

1) Preheat the oven to 170deg

2) Spread the peanuts in a single layer and bake the peanuts at 170 deg for about 20-22 minutes or till golden brown. When done, set aside to cool.

3) Put the peanuts in food processor to blend till fine.

4) Combine plain flour, icing sugar and salt, then sieve into ground peanut, mix well.

5) Add in peanut oil and mix until a dough is formed.

6) Preheat oven to 170°C.

7) Take out 1/2 tablespoon (about 7 g) of dough, press until firm and shape gently into a ball.

8) Place the dough balls slightly apart on a lined baking tray.

9) Lightly press the dough balls with funnel stem to create small circles.

10) Prepare the egg yolk wash: Mix together water and egg yolk, then strain through a sieve.

11) Brush the top of dough balls with some egg yolk wash.

12) Bake in the preheated oven at 170°C for 20 minutes. After removing from oven, set aside to cool completely.

13) When completely cooled, transfer to airtight containers for storage.

Verdict :

- really melts in the mouth !

- aromatic peanut flavour throughout

- easy

After thoughts :

1) For my oven, I need to set the temperature about 10deg lower at 160deg instead. Otherwise, at the same amount of time and temperature, the cookies burnt

2) Peanut ball needs to be relatively firm. If not, when the small circle is indented on top of the cookie, the cookie will crack up more

3) With the recipe, I can only produce about 100 cookies