rekindle my childhood memories ~ peanut cookies 迷你花生酥

What a lovely afternoon to start with.... beautiful sunny weather with warm wind blowing outside. 'How wonderful it is if I can have a cup of tea with some peanut cookies', 'Why not?' I said to myself.

This peanut cookie used to be one of the most popular types in Hong Kong, Malaysia & Singapore. I still remember the time my parents took me to attend a traditional chinese wedding banquet, and usually these peanut cookies were served with red bean sweet soup 紅豆沙 as dessert of the banquet. With one of these little nutty cookies in my hand, it certainly brings me back to lovely scene of my childhood memories.

Today let's start with this traditional chinese peanut cookies (迷你花生酥). I'm sure it would be one of your favorites too:)) Thanks so much for pei lin's recipe, you really make my day.

Traditional Chinese Peanut Cookies (迷你花生酥) Adapted from Pei Lin's *

This recipe makes around 40 cookies
Preparation time : approx. 1 hr
Baking time : 20 - 25 mins
Level : Intermediate

You'll need:-

300 g raw peanuts — preferably skinned
* I can only find raw peanuts with skin in UK. To remove the skin, just toast them in an oven at 170C for about 10 mins, then skin can be easily removed*

175 g sugar — separated * Sifted powdered sugar for a superfine, melt-in-your-mouth texture. Caster or granulated sugar for that little crunch in the melt-in-your-mouth cookies. Either way, they're good. *

(A) 185 g all-purpose flour — sifted once
add ½ ~ 3/4 tsp salt (depends you like the degree of saltiness)

3Tbsp creamy peanut butter OR 2Tbsp creamy peanut butter plus 1 Tbsp softened unsalted butter

Enough neutrally flavored oil
* E.g. corn, sunflower-seed or rice-bran oil.
Note: You’re going to need quite a fair amount of it.

* Enough peanut halves — skinned (B) 1 egg — at room temperature
Pinch of salt

Instead of roasting them in a wok with all the constant stirring and “shoveling” for a good chunk of the hour, I toast the peanuts in baking sheet(s), in an oven of 180°C for 15 minutes. By then, they should smell nuttier and look somewhat toasted. Remove the nuts from the oven and set aside to cool in the sheet(s) completely before use.

In a food processor or coffee grinder, pulverize the toasted peanuts with about 30 g sugar until you get a finely ground texture, though, slightly larger bits here and there are inevitable. The cookies will turn out fine anyway.

Combine the ground peanuts with the remaining sugar and (A), then mix in the peanut butter until it is well dispersed in the mixture.

Mix in enough oil to the peanut-and-flour mixture, working it ever so slightly until you’ve gotten a dough that doesn’t fall apart and doesn’t stick to your hands badly. No fixed and fast rules here. Dough too wet and sticky? Mix in additional flour! Dough too dry and crumbly? Mix in more oil!

Divide the dough into walnut-sized portions — or slightly smaller, if that’s what you prefer. Roll each into a ball and place on parchment-lined baking sheet(s).

Gently press a peanut half slightly in the center of each of them.

Lightly beat together (B) and apply this slightly salted egg wash on the shaped dough. (Remember the egg wash should be covered the top of the cookie).

Bake at 180°C, for 20 ~ 25 minutes, until the cookies look golden brown and slightly crackled. Don’t fret! The cookies will “shrink” up a wee bit as they cool.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit on the baking sheet(s) for 5 minutes or so to set their underside. Then, carefully transfer the cookies to the cooling racks and let cool completely before storing airtight.