Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies (花生饼) are a traditional Chinese New Year treat. Each melting, crunchy, toasty bite is cause for celebration!
One of my favorite things about the internet is learning about other cultures’ customs and foods. My spice collection has expanded exponentially as I dabble in world cuisine.
I get especially excited whenever I discover an international cookie recipe that fits the care package requirements of The Monday Box. The flavors or preparation methods can be different than what I am used to, but the results are often worth sharing.
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!
I have mentioned before, that the best part of blogging is the people I meet. It’s amazing to me having friends all over the world, whom I never would have had the pleasure of knowing, without the wonders of the internet.
When we get really lucky, we get to meet in “real life”. The rest of the time we share life stories, recipes, and comments through cyber space.
Last year my blogging friend Monica at Playing with Flour posted a Chinese New Year recipe for Chinese dessert soup with glutinous rice balls. Dessert soup was a new idea to me and sounded wonderful (it was)!
I decided immediately that my family needed a taste of Chinese New Year. With product photos in hand, I took a field trip to a large Asian supermarket and went on an ingredient treasure hunt.
That night, my family enjoyed a brown sugar broth with a variety of glutinous rice balls, some plain, that I made, and some stuffed, that I bought frozen.
With that success, I began our “try a Chinese New Year recipe” tradition. Thank you, Monica!
Discovering traditional Chinese peanut cookies was a lucky accident. I was searching for a recipe to try for this year’s intercultural adventure when pictures popped up of a round little cookie that looked very similar to a Chinese almond cookie.
I knew about almond cookies. Monica has a recipe for those too, but I am allergic to almonds so I never tried them. 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.
Personally, I love 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.
I have taste tested an enormous number of Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies recently. Some tastes were truly needed for recipe development. Others were due to the addictive nature of these crunchy yet melt-in-your-mouth treats.
The crunchy part comes from the granulated sugar. Many peanut cookie recipes call for powdered sugar. The texture of those cookies is less crunchy and more….powdery.
The granulated sugar version still gives a melt-in-your-mouth consistency, but with a bit more texture and definite crunch.
Another recipe difference was in the amount of salt used. I am not a sweet-salty fan. I went with a recipe version that uses just enough salt in the background to bring out the toasty peanut flavor and a bit of sweetness.
Toasty peanut flavor is the focus of these cookies. Being allergic to nuts (not peanuts) I wasn’t familiar with what a little roasting can do for flavor. Wow.
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.
Being the queen of sprinkles and decorating sugar, I had to hold myself back while making these and I am glad I did.
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!
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
Love peanut cookies? Check out this collection of 20 Irresistible Peanut Cookies to bake right now!
Helen at the Lazy Gastronome
Pinning this one – sounds delicious and I’m not even a big cookie person! Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner party!
The Monday Box
Thanks, Helen! These are a good choice for a “not even big cookie person”, because they aren’t overly sweet, just very peanut-y.Thanks for hosting and for pinning!
Maisy
I’ve never had any sort of Chinese New Year cookies, but these look so yummy and cute!! 🙂
*Maisy
Gail Kaufman
I love Chinese almond cookies that some Chinese restaurants serve. Can I replace the peanuts in this recipe with almonds? Or do you have an almond cookie recipe?
The Monday Box
Hi, Gail. Because of a tree nut allergy, I rarely bake with almonds (for family) and I can’t taste what I bake! Though I haven’t tried it, you probably could turn these into almond cookies BUT I don’t think they would be like the restaurant cookies you are trying for. This is a link to the Playing with Flour blog to a recipe I think is what you want. Monica is a wonderful baker, I love her blog, and every recipe of hers I have ever made has been great. Good luck with the almond cookies and I hope you will come back to The Monday Box for nut-free recipes! 🙂
http://www.playingwithflour.com/2014/01/chinese-almond-cookies.html
Rachel
Wow, these are unique! They look tasty!
The Monday Box
Thank you, Rachel! It was fun to bake a common Chinese cookie that was new to me.
Christine
for awhile…I was using my before coffee brain, sorry!
Christine
Dessert soup is indeed delicious – I have a pumpkin, mung bean soup I’ve been meaning to try out for awhile. And a trip to your nearest Chinese supermarket? Sign me up! I love those places, brimming with inspiration and exotic foods;)
themondaybox
Pumpkin-mung bean soup sounds delicious! I am going to have to Google that one! I can wander in international food markets for hours. The world is full of inspiration. 🙂
Ashley
These peanut cookies look like a fantastic way to celebrate Chinese new year! It really is such fun to try new recipes from different cultures. Blogging definitely helps me realize all the wonderful recipes out there!
And yes to kitchen scales! The $20 (or whatever it was exactly) is so worth it!
themondaybox
With the numerous different calendars used by different cultures, its possible to celebrate New Years and start fresh, several times in 365 days! 🙂 Plus, you get to eat and drink. I drank champagne for American New Years, ate apples and honey for Jewish New Years, and ate peanut cookies for Chinese New Years. 🙂
Tricia @ Saving room for dessert
Wow Wendy – these are fascinating! Don’t you just love Monica – she is a dear – and I too love the internet for all we can learn about different cultures and food. I was thinking about that the other day – how we eat so many things I never tried growing up in the South. I could taste test a few of these myself. I love a good peanut cookie. Thanks for sharing this one!
themondaybox
It’s so much fun to learn about and try new things! The internet certainly has changed the world in wondrous ways! We all have access to so much, and distance isn’t as distant. 🙂 This was a fun cookie to try…baking and eating!
suki
Yum, these look amazing! Happy Chinese New Year. 🙂
themondaybox
Thank you, Suki! These little cookies were interesting to research and fun to make! Happy Year of the Sheep!
patricemfoster
These peanut cookies look festive …no a feast for my eyes and mouth. Something different for me to try. Thanks for sharing.
themondaybox
Thank you, Patrice! They were something different for me too. I love learning about foods around the world! 🙂
anna
They look delicious! happy Chinese new year!
themondaybox
Thanks, Anna! I found these very peanuty, which for me means delicious. The melting texture is quite different and fun for a change. Happy Year of the Sheep!
Monica
Thank you for the kind mentions, Wendy! : ) This was such a treat for me to read. I was/am so happy you tried those glutinous rice balls for the dessert soup. Keep up your adventurous cooking. I, too, have enjoyed broadening my cooking horizon in the last few years. My spice cupboard used to be almost bare but I now have to make almost-regular trips to Penzeys. : ) These peanut cookies are a wonderful option from almonds. They look delicious and perfect for our CNY tables!
themondaybox
I held my breath (sort of) anticipating your reading the post, Monica! I really am so thankful that I found you and Playing with Flour. So much to learn and try. 🙂 I LOVE your posts sharing Chinese cuisine…. well, I love all of your posts (whats not to love about chocolate?!), but I am fascinated with the foods from your childhood (your Congee is happening at my house soon). The dessert soup was a delicious adventure. 🙂 My research for Chinese New Year cookies was also an adventure. These are very different from a standard American peanut butter cookie. They are bursting with peanut flavor, but the texture is quite different. I too am an enthusiastic Penzeys customer! Happy Year of the Sheep!
chrisscheuer
These are so cute Wendy and they sound wonderful. How great also to have an alternative to the traditional Chinese almond cookie.
themondaybox
Thanks, Chris! I found several traditional Chinese New year Cookies that were intriguing. This was one. Another had homemade pineapple jam inside that sounds amazing. Maybe not for a care package, but it sounds like a delicious cooking challenge to me! 🙂
Jess @ On Sugar Mountain
What a lovely way to celebrate Chinese New Year! All my peanut and PB loving friends would go nuts for these cookies. 😀
themondaybox
Thanks, Jess! An egg roll or two, a bowl of dessert soup, and a few peanut cookies is my idea of a tasty Chinese New Year celebration! These cookies work with peanut butter too. Either start with peanut butter or grind the peanuts into butter, then minimal added oil is needed. 🙂
Liz W.
These look fantastic! I’ll take 2 dozen, Wendy 😉 I, too, am a metric lover. I don’t know why we, as a country, just haven’t converted yet! So much more accurate and so much easier! Anyway, these look glorious. I’m pinning right now…
themondaybox
Thanks, Liz! Its fun to try new things. The melting texture and the light sweetness are definitely not like standard American cookies. My son was surprised by their differentness. My palate took one or two bites to fall in yum with them. 🙂 Thanks for pinning!