Friday, February 8, 2013

Last Minutes Almond Cookies for Chinese New Year (賀年杏仁餅)



Happy Chinese New Year!  If you are still busy preparing dinner for today but still want to make some homemade cookies to celebrate CNY, this is an easy recipe that don't need any cookies cutter, roasting and grounding nuts or jam making.  And I can tell you these last minutes cookies taste better than the one that needs lots of effort to prepare!

祝大家新春大吉,萬事如意

Chinese Almond Cookies (杏仁酥餅)
(make about 45)

120g almond meal
180g plain flour
60g caster sugar
60g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup canola oil
beaten egg for brushing
almond flakes (optional)

Method:

  1. Preheat oven at 180c. Lined baking trays with baking paper. 
  2. Sift the flour, icing sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the mixing bowl, add the almond meal, sugar and salt. Combine all the dry ingredients and make a well in the middle.  Gradually add oil to form a moist dough, add a little oil about 1 tablespoon at a time if needed until you shape into balls. 
  3. Roll cookies dough into small balls and press slightly with the back of a fork. Brush with egg and topped with almond flakes, then brush with more egg over.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Note: The original recipe uses 120g caster sugar, it works well as well if you don't want to use two different types of sugar.

Source: adopted and modified from The Kitchen 70's


9 comments:

  1. veronica:
    Want to wish you 恭喜发财!Gong Xi Fa Cai!
    万事如意!
    Are you in Melbourne? If yes, with so many Asian there I guess you may still get to feel the CNY atmoshpere rite?
    :-)

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  2. Thanks Yin! I'm from Queensland and the CNY atmosphere is not too bad and I wish some year I can go to Malaysia or Hong Kong to have a greater celebration.

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  3. Love the presentation, dear! Happy CNY to u too! xoxo

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  4. I hope you have a good New Year :)
    The cookies sound delicious.

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  5. Simple and easy to make.. and looks tasty too. Gong Xi Fa Cai to you and family, Veron!

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  6. Hi Veronica,

    Happy CNY to you and your family. To me, CNY is never complete without any CNY goodies and your almond cookies look wonderful.

    About your comment about pineapple tarts... If the pineapple jam is well cooked with not much water content, the tart pastry should be soften at all. I prefer to store my tarts in room temperature for its nice and soft buttery texture. They can harden when they are stored at room temperature. Hope to hear from you again if you are baking pineapple tarts in the near future.

    Zoe

    Zoe

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  7. Oh they look lovely and perfectly done. You are really good last minute:)

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