Peanut Cookies - 花生酥

After resting for a week or so, I have some discussion going on with my colleague R regarding on what to bake for Chinese New Year. She was telling me that she had a few packets of chopped peanut being left over from the instant "Tangyuan - 汤圆" that she bought during December 2009 "Dong Zhi - 冬至".

Since I have not make any "Peanut Cookies -花生酥" before, I decided to do a google search for some suitable recipes, but some of it don't really look appetising from the photos. So after some mix and match on the recipes that I settle on one that I feel is easier to prepared and will yield good results based on the comments given.

From some of the recipes that I google it didn't really mention which type of peanut to be used for the recipe. So in order to save time for the trial baking, I bought the pre-packed ground peanut powder which most people used it for dessert purpose. The peanuts are finely grind into powder like texture and mixture of caster sugar based on the packet ingredients stated. So in this case, I have to cut down the amount of sugar used so that it is not too sweet due to the extra sugar in the ground peanut mixture.

Ingredients: (makes 36 marble sizes)
100g Ground Peanut Powder
100g Top Flour/Plain Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
50g Icing Sugar
60g Roasted Salted Peanut, finely chopped
70ml Peanut Oil/Corn Oil

Egg Wash:
1 Egg Yolk + 1 Teaspoon White, beat well

Method:
1. Mix flour, baking powder, ground peanut and icing sugar(sieved) together in a mixing bowl.
2. Next toss in the chopped peanuts and mix well.
3. Slowly add in peanut oil (you might required slightly 10 - 15ml more) to mix the flour mixture into a dough. (after stir in the oil with the spoon, use hand to knead and mix the dough will be much easier)
4. When the dough bind together, shape the dough accordingly to your preference size and shapes, brush with egg wash.
5. Bake in preheat 170 degree oven for about 15 - 20 minutes(depend on the sizes) till golden brown.
6. Set it aside on cooling rack to cool completely before storing it in air-tight container.


This is one of the most easier to prepare Chinese New Year cookies based on the short-cut that I have taken for the ingredients use :p But if you have the time for doing the preparation, I encourage that you might want to spend some time to roast the peanut till fragrant then grind it so that it will produce a even more fragrant and melt-in-mouth effect.

But no matter which type of methods/recipes your prefer, below are some interesting links that you might want to read about on their recipes/tips on making peanut cookies which I personally think is very useful:-

1. Malaysian Best - Peanut Cookies
2. Happy Home Baking - Cookie Galore
3. Do What I like - Chinese Peanut Cookies