Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies (花生饼) are a traditional Chinese New Year treat. Each melting, crunchy, toasty bite is cause for celebration!
Why you'll love this recipe
The Monday Box archives contains recipes from Australia, Russia, Scotland, Germany, Greece, and Italy. Today I am adding China with Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies!
Discovering traditional Chinese peanut cookies was a lucky accident. I was searching for a recipe to try for my annual intercultural Chinese New Year culinary adventure when pictures popped up of a round little cookie that looked very similar to a Chinese almond cookie.
Reading more about Peanut Cookies, I learned that stored in an airtight container, they stay fresh for up to 2 weeks. Monday Box gold star!
All of the authentic Chinese peanut cookies recipes I found used metric measurement. I love baking with metric measurement. Everything is so accurate, making good results much easier. I highly recommend buying a little digital kitchen scale with both metric and non-metric measurement. I think mine cost less than $20 from Amazon.
However, for those of you without a scale, I adapted the traditional recipe to give approximate cup equivalents.
Toasty peanut flavor is the focus of these cookies. A little roasting does amazing things to intensify the flavor of nuts.
All of the original recipes used raw shelled peanuts, readily available at Asian markets, and stove top or oven roasted them.I bought unsalted roasted peanuts at Trader Joe’s and, following directions I found on Smitten Kitchen, I oven toasted them for a shorter time, just to bring out the flavor.
Traditional peanut cookies are only mildly sweet and are amazingly peanutty. An optional sprinkle of granulated sugar on top before baking can make the sweetness more like most American cookies.These sweet morsels of peanutty goodness are a celebration of peanut flavor that peanut lovers would enjoy any time of year!
Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Follow instructions to roast peanuts.
- Grind the slightly cooled roasted peanuts in a food processor until the texture of small grits or cream of wheat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and salt. Mix in the ground peanuts. Stir in half of the cooking oil into the bowl,then knead the mixture by hand, adding additional oil by tablespoons, until a smooth dough forms (about 5 minutes) and a teaspoon of dough can be rolled into small cookie balls without crumbling.
- Roll teaspoon portions of dough into balls. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Press a peanut half into the top of each dough ball. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.
Storage
Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Would you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later! Plus, you’ll get more great recipes and tips from us each week!
Related recipes
Chinese Almond Cookies are a crunchy butter cookie full of delicious almond flavor. These traditional Chinese New Year Cookies are a standard in American Chinese restaurants.
Chinese Milk Candy is chewy marshmallow nougat with crunchy peanuts.
Pineapple Cookies , also called pineapple tarts,are beautiful shortbread cookies with pineapple jam tucked inside.
Butter Cookie Dragons are not traditional for Chinese New Year, but children love them.
For some great Chinese New Year cookie ideas, take a look at this roundup of 10 Chinese New Year Treats!
Ready to bake? Join the free membership group to get new recipes and a newsletter delivered to your inbox! You can also stay in touch on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’d love to stay in touch!
Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies (花生饼)
Ingredients
- 300 g unsalted peanuts about 2 ½ cups plus a handful for decorating
- 200 g granulated sugar about 1 cup
- 250 g all-purpose flour about 2 cups
- pinch salt
- ¾ cup vegetable oil canola, peanut, olive, etc.
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup granulated sugar for topping optional
Instructions
- To oven roast the peanuts: Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Line a baking pan with foil and spread peanuts out in a single layer on top of the foil. If using raw peanuts, bake for 15-20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes until golden brown and fragrant. If using roasted peanuts, bake for 5 minutes only, stirring after 2 ½ minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.
- Lower the oven temperature to 325˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Grind the slightly cooled roasted peanuts in a food processor until the texture of small grits or cream of wheat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and salt. Add the ground peanuts. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix until well combined.
- Drizzle half of the cooking oil into the bowl. Mix with the wooden spoon/spatula. Then knead the mixture by hand, adding additional oil by tablespoons, until a smooth dough forms (about 5 minutes) and a teaspoon of dough can be rolled into small cookie balls without crumbling. Depending on how finely the peanut are ground the amount of oil needed will vary. Some of the oil may not be used.
- Scoop teaspoon portions of dough (about 10 grams) and roll into balls. Place on the prepared baking sheet at least 1 inch apart. Press a peanut half into the top of each dough ball.
- Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon of water to make an egg wash. Use a pastry brush to brush the wash over the top of each cookie ball. Optional: Sprinkle granulated sugar over the egg wash coated dough balls.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. The cookies should be golden brown. Turn off the oven and leave the cookies inside to bake another 5 minutes before removing them.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
Nutrition
First Published: February 18, 2015. Last Updated: January 15, 2023. Updated for better reader experience.
Helen at the Lazy Gastronome
OMG I love these cookies! Pinned! Thanks for sharing at the What's for Dinner party.
Miz Helen
Great cookies for the Chinese New Year! Hope you are having a great week and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday.
Miz Helen
Miz Helen
What a great cookie for the Chinese New Year! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with us at Full Plate Thursday. Have a great week and come back soon!
Miz Helen
The Monday Box
Thanks, Miz Helen! It's fun to try new recipes and learn about world cultures! Thanks for hosting Full Plate Thursday!