Indulge in these traditional Chinese Peanut Cookies, a Chinese New Year favorite. Easy to make, these cookies offer a perfect balance of sweet, peanutty flavor and a melt-in-your-mouth texture that's simply irresistible.
Chinese Peanut Cookies are enjoyed throughout the year but are especially popular during Chinese New Year. I've loved these cookies so much ever since I was a child.
During the Chinese New Year season here in Malaysia, you will find street vendors everywhere selling a variety of Chinese cookies and sweets in tall plastic containers. Chinese Peanut Cookies are always the first thing I look for.
Last year, I shared my Pineapple Jam Tart recipe for Chinese New Year. This year, I'm sharing my Chinese Peanut Cookie recipe.
These Chinese Peanut Cookies are incredibly peanutty, mildly sweet with just a slight hint of salt to bring out the peanut flavor. I use a combination of coarser granulated sugar along with powdered sugar to give it some contrast in texture. The granulated sugar along with the finely ground peanuts give the cookies a nice sweet crunch, while the powdered sugar allows the cookies to crumble and melt in your mouth.
PS - Click HERE if you are looking for more Chinese New Year Cookie Recipes! If you love peanuts, you might also enjoy my Muah Chee (Chinese Peanut Mochi) recipe!
Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grind 1 ½ cups of unsalted roasted peanuts into a fine powder. I use my Magic Bullet Blender for this task and it works perfectly. You can also use a food processor. Be careful not to blend the peanuts for too long; otherwise you will end up with peanut butter! Blend them in small batches at a time so you have better control of how fine they are ground.
In a mixing bowl, combine the ground peanuts with 1 ½ cups of flour, ½ cup of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir well to blend these ingredients.
Add ¾ cup of peanut oil to the mix, then use your fingers to knead the ingredients into a dough.
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Test the consistency of the dough by taking 1 teaspoon of it and forming it into a ball by squeezing the dough in your hand first, then gently rolling it in between your palms. If the dough crumbles too easily, add a little bit more oil into the dough. If you can easily roll the dough into balls, the dough is at the right consistency. Keep rolling the rest of the dough into little cookie balls.
Arrange the cookie dough balls about an inch apart on a cookie sheet.
Lightly beat 1 egg yolk, then brush a little bit of the egg yolk on top of each cookie.
Bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until they turn a nice golden brown color.
Enjoy!
Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year!
Note: This post was originally part of a link-sharing event with other food bloggers. As part of ongoing SEO updates, the original links have been removed, but the recipe remains a favorite.
Chinese Peanut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups unsalted roasted peanuts skinless
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- ¾ cup peanut oil or more
- 1 egg yolk lightly beaten
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
- Grind the peanuts into a fine powder using a food processor.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground peanuts, flour, powdered sugar, granulated sugar and salt. Mix well.
- Pour peanut oil over the peanut mixture and knead with your fingers until a dough forms.
- Take about 1 teaspoon of the dough and form it into a ball by squeezing the dough in your hand first, then gently rolling it in between your palms. If the dough crumbles too easily, add more oil to the dough.
- Arrange the cookie dough balls about an inch apart on a cookie sheet.
- Brush some egg yolk on the top of each cookie.
- Bake for about 20 minute or until they turn a nice golden brown.
Nutrition
Vin says
Hi thanks for this recipe. I just wanted to know if I could use store bought peanut powder. And the amount to use 1 1/2 cups roasted peanuts to how much peanut powder?
Char says
Hi Vin, I haven't used peanut powder in this recipe so I can't advise on that, unfortunately, but I think that as long as there are no added ingredients, it should be okay to use.
I imagine that it would be a bit drier as well so you may need to use a bit more oil. Let me know how it goes if you give this a try!