Peanut cookies
These are the small, round Chinese peanut cookies that fill the candy boxes at Lunar New Year, right next to the almond cookies. The dough has no egg, just ground roasted peanuts, flour, sugar and oil, so each cookie crumbles at the first bite and melts on your tongue. The nutty, gently salty-sweet flavor makes it hard to stop at just one.
- Difficulty
- Very easy
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Rising or chilling
- 10 min
- Total time
- 1 hr
- Method
- Oven-baked
Ingredients
Peanut dough
Egg yolk wash
Instructions
Step 1
Rub off all the papery skins, then put 200 g roasted peanuts in a food processor and pulse in short bursts until they look like fine, damp sand. Pulsing keeps the peanuts from heating up and releasing their oil into peanut butter. They're ready when they're fine, slightly moist and hold together loosely when you squeeze a handful.
Step 2
Sift 200 g all-purpose flour, 100 g powdered sugar and 2 g salt into a large bowl, add the ground peanuts and toss everything together with your hands. Powdered sugar dissolves quickly, so the cookies come out smooth rather than gritty. The mixture is ready when the peanuts are evenly spread through and there are no lumps.
Step 3
Slowly pour 100 g vegetable oil into the bowl, squeezing and mixing with your hands as you go until the dough comes together into a ball. Just enough oil binds the dough while keeping the cookies short and crumbly after baking. The dough is ready when it's soft like modeling clay, doesn't crack when squeezed and isn't leaking oil.
Step 4
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for about ten minutes. This gives the flour and peanuts time to soak up the oil, so the balls roll up smooth and crack less. The dough is ready when the surface looks less oily and a test ball rolls up round and smooth.
Step 5
Preheat the oven to 170°C with a rack in the middle, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. A moderate heat lets these little cookies bake through to the center without scorching on the bottom. The oven is ready after about fifteen minutes of preheating.
Step 6
Roll the dough into small balls about the size of the tip of your thumb and set them two centimeters apart on the sheet; if you like, press a pen cap lightly into the top of each one to stamp a decorative ring. Small balls bake quickly and keep their signature melt-away crunch. You're done when the balls are evenly round with no large cracks.
Step 7
Beat 18 g egg yolks, brush a very thin layer over each cookie, let it dry for about two minutes, then brush on a second coat. Two thin coats give a glossy golden-amber finish without dripping down the sides. You're done when the tops are evenly shiny with no pooled drops.
Step 8
Bake at 170°C for 18 to 20 minutes, until the kitchen smells wonderfully of toasted peanuts. Baking for the full time drives off all the moisture so the cookies turn crisp and crumbly as they cool. They're done when the tops are a shiny golden brown and the bottoms are light brown.
Step 9
Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for about ten minutes before moving them to a rack. With no egg in the dough, they're very soft and fragile while hot and will break if you lift them too soon. They're ready when completely cool and firm enough to pick up.
Equipment
- Oven
- Food processor
- Mixing bowl
- Spatula
- Sieve
- Kitchen scale
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Pastry brush
- Wire cooling rack
Tips
- Peanut oil makes the cookies more fragrant than regular vegetable oil, and some families even use lard for an extra-crumbly texture.
- If your roasted peanuts are already salted, reduce or leave out the salt in the recipe.
- You can sprinkle a few white sesame seeds over the tops after brushing on the yolk for extra flavor.
Storage
Once completely cool, the cookies keep for about three weeks at room temperature in an airtight glass jar or cookie tin. Store them somewhere dry and out of the sun, since the oil in the peanuts turns rancid quickly in the heat.
Common problems and how to fix them
- The dough is dry and cracks a lot when you roll it.
- The ground peanuts are too dry or there isn't enough oil. Add oil a little at a time and squeeze the dough until the balls roll up without cracking.
- The cookies leak oil and lose their round shape.
- The peanuts were ground too long into butter or too much oil went in. Work a little extra flour into the dough, and remember to pulse the peanuts in short bursts next time.
This recipe is based on the common ratios for this bake and is written entirely in our own words.
