Traditional Chinese Peanut Cookies (CNY 2023)

Making peanut powder

1. Place all the peanuts in a colander and rinse well. Spread them out in a single layer to air dry till they're dry to the touch. (This may take several hours. I tend to wash mine in the morning and fry in the afternoon. Make sure they are super dry as we're frying them!)
2. Pour enough oil into your wok/ pot to cover your nuts and heat on medium-high. When hot enough, the oil should wave slightly- if it is smoking, it is too hot!
3. Once the oil is hot enough, add enough peanuts to cover the bottom of the pan- do not overcrowd as this will cause the oil temperature to drop too drastically. (You may have to fry the nuts in several batches.) If the oil is hot enough, the nuts should sizzle and bubble. Note: beware as the oil may sort of slightly explode with a pop now and then if there's water in the nuts!
4. Stir the nuts constantly for about 7-8 minutes before removing them from the oil and placing them on kitchen towels to drain the oil. (Note the peanuts will continue darkening once removed from the oil) Repeat the steps till all the nuts have been fried.
5. Let the peanuts cool and once cool enough to touch, remove the skins. Note: This is indeed a tedious process so if you can get good quality freshly roasted snacking nuts from the shop, you may want to use those instead. The only negative is that they can cost quite a bit more!
6. Once the nuts are cooled and skinned, take out 50 peanuts, split them into half and cover. Blend the remaining nuts with the salt in your food processor till it becomes a powder. (Do this in batches so you have better control over the texture. You can leave about 5-10% as bigger pieces for a bit of crunch but not too much or your cookies will break at a touch!)

Making the cookies

1. Sift the flour then add to the sugar and peanut powder. (If using icing sugar, sift it with the flour.)
2. The amount of oil you will need varies depending on how much oil is produced after you've blended the nuts so add approximately 90% of the oil to the peanut powder, flour and sugar mixture first. Mix well. If the mixture is too dry, add the rest of the oil and mix till homogenous. (Too dry a dough won't hold together, and too wet a dough will ooze into a flat oblong puddle instead of keeping the round cookie shape.)
3. Use a ½ tablespoon scoop to scoop out the dough then roll each scoop into a round ball. The cookies don't spread much in the oven and may be placed very close to each other on the baking mat.
4. Take out the peanuts that you've separated into halves earlier and press half into the centre of each cookie.
5. Use a brush to brush the egg yolk wash over each cookie, diluting slightly with water if it is too thick.
6. Bake at 350F/ 176C till golden brown (approximately 17-20 minutes) Turn the baking tray around halfway through baking for a more consistent colour (as ovens have hot spots, usually at the back corners)
7. Allow to cool then enjoy these crunchy yet melt in the mouth snacks!