food 4 tots

Peanut cookies

peanut cookies, peanut cookies recipe, Chinese peanut cookies, Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, festive cookies, CNY cookies, toddler, food for toddlers,

RECIPE FOR PEANUT COOKIES

Source: Recipe largely adapted and modified from my reader, Sandy Goh’s recipe. For methods, Dodol & Mochi and Rasa Malaysia.

Yield: 130 cookies

Ingredients:
300g raw peanuts
250g plain flour
130g icing sugar (note 1)
135ml peanut oil (note 2) – add extra 5ml if necessary
15g butter (softened – optional)
Pinch of salt

Egg wash (based on one large egg about 66g)
– 1 egg yolk (beaten lightly, and diluted with 1 tsp milk and 1 tsp water) (note 3)

Methods:

  1. Rinse peanuts until running water. Pat dry with kitchen towel and leave to air dry. In a wok/ cooking pan, dry fry (without oil) peanuts with low heat until fragrant, the skin turns dark brown and the internal colour is tan. It will take about 20 minutes or so. Set aside and let them cool down. Remove skins and grind peanut until fine or superfine (depending on your preference. If superfine grounded peanuts, the texture will be sticky and smooth like a paste.). Keep in an airtight container. Best to prepare this step one day in advance (note 4 and 5).
  2. Preheat oven at 160°C for 15 minutes. Line a baking tray with grease-proof paper. You may need to bake these cookies in 3 batches.
  3. Sieve flour, sugar and salt respectively.
  4. In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, sugar, salt and grounded peanuts until well combined. If your grounded peanuts are superfine and smooth like paste, use your finger tips to rub it into the flour mixture.
  5. Add in butter, then oil. For oil, add in bit by bit. If your grounded peanuts are superfine and smooth like paste, lesser oil is needed for kneading.
  6. Use a spatula to combine all the ingredients until well incorporated. Then, knead with hand until a dough is formed. At first, the dough will be dry and crumbly. As you go on, the oil from the peanut will make the dough sticky. It will take about 5 minutes to achieve it. To test it, take a small portion of the dough and roll into a ball between your palms. If it doesn’t fall apart, then your dough is ready. If not, add a bit more oil, knead and test again.
  7. Take 7g of dough, shape into ball and flatten it slightly with both palms. Repeat this step until the dough is used up.
  8. Take a pen cap (remember to wash it before you use for hygiene purpose) and press it lightly on top of the cookies to create a design.
  9. Apply egg wash to the cookies.
  10. Bake at 160°C for 20 minutes until they turn slight golden brown and have little cracks. After the baking time, turn off the oven, leave the cookies inside with the oven door shut. Let the residue heat in the oven cook the cookies for a further 5 minutes.
  11. Remove the cookies from the oven and leave to cool on the wire rack for another 5-10 minutes. Then store them in an air-tight seal container or any container and seal the lid with sticky tape.

Notes:

  1. The original recipe is determined based on a fixed ratio of 2:2:1:1 for peanuts, flour, sugar and oil respectively. Given my current adjustment to the peanuts and flour, I had re-calculated the sugar and oil based on the following formulas:
    – sugar = 25% x total amount for peanuts and flour.
    – oil = 20% of total amount for peanuts, flour and sugar.
  2. You can substitute peanut oil with any unflavoured oil such as olive oil and sunflower oil. But, peanut oil will yield more aromas to the cookies.
  3. The ratio of milk and water is just my personal preference. You can also choose to have only 1 type as you like. It’s fine as long as the egg yolk is diluted.
  4. Instead of dry frying, you can roast them in an oven at 170°C for 20 minutes. After roasting for 10 minutes, stir every 5 minutes until fragrant and cooked. The cooking time may vary depending on the size of the peanuts. If the peanuts are not fully cooked after 20 minutes, extend another 5-7 minutes at 140°C.
  5. The peanuts will continue cooking after dry frying or roasting. So, do not overcook them. It’s fine to cook them slightly underdone. Give it a bite to test. As long as they taste fragrant and the internal colour is tan, you can stop. They will turn crispy once they cool down.
  6. The baking time and oven temperatures vary depending on the types of oven you use. So, please use your own judgment.

 

peanut cookies, peanut cookies recipe, Chinese peanut cookies, Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, festive cookies, CNY cookies, toddler, food for toddlers,

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53 Comments

  1. noobcook says:

    they look so amazing and professional. Wishing you and your loved ones 龙年快乐, 万事如意!

  2. My must make for the CNY! Simply love it!

  3. tigerfish says:

    Yes! 身体壮得像斗龙! 🙂

    I usually like the almond version of this. Your peanut cookies look flawless!

  4. Meg Tan says:

    I’m eagerly waiting for the day my son turns 3 (he’s 2 now), then I can use peanuts in my cooking and baking, like soups, peanut butter, peanut cookies… shall KIV this recipe till then :p

  5. Joanne says:

    Well I am certainly NOT allergic to peanuts and I’m so glad because I can’t wait to try these!

  6. I never made peanut cookie before, i need to keep this recipe for next CNY, running out of time..Beautiful photos !
    Wishing you Gong Xi Fa Cai!

  7. Ellena says:

    Your peanut cookies look so inviting, especially the colours. Wishing you and your family a Happy Chinese New Year.

  8. Hi Lai Kuan

    Wishing u and family “Blessed Lunar New Year”.

    Love to try out ur peanut cookies recipe after Feb cos’ still busy with work. U are always so meticulous and detail in ur recipes write-up. Thank u for the unselfish sharing of all recipes and tips and advice.

    BTW, I lost ur email due to computer crashed and I lost the entire data in my computer. Lost all the connections, that’s why u did not hear from me.

    Blessings
    Priscilla Poh

    • food-4tots says:

      Priscilla Poh: You’re so generous with words as always! Thanks a lot! Oh dear, sorry to hear about what happened to your computer. I will send you an email soon. Gong Xi Fatt Chai to you and your family! 😉

  9. Priya says:

    Wow those cookies looks damn cute.

  10. Alice says:

    This recipe looks simple and easy to make! Might give it a try during the CNY holiday soon! 😀

  11. Migle says:

    The cookies are just gorgeous! I will definitelly make them 🙂

  12. I used to help my mom make peanut cookies also…..but like you, I hardly eat them….lol!

  13. mycookinghut says:

    I love peanut cookies! It’s really festive! Man, I want to make some too..
    新年快了!万事如意!龙年好运!

  14. mycookinghut says:

    sorry.. typo. should be 新年快乐!

  15. I love these little cookies. I remember eating a version of them when i was younger! Yum!

  16. Each cookie is so perfectly round and they each are identical in size! Well done! A Very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year to you and your family!

  17. These peanut cookies is perfectly made. I love it. Happy Dragon Year to you and your family.

  18. Happy Chinese New Year! Gosh I missed a couple of your past posts. They all look like recipes from a cookbook! I live Chinese peanut cookies, and these look beautiful! I wish you have healthy and prosperous Dragon year!

    p.s. Thanks for the like on my picture, which lead me to come back here.. =D

  19. Beautiful peanut cookies! Every cookie is in perfect round. Good job.

  20. Your cookies look so wonderful! perfect shapes and lovely golden color 😀 I couldn’t resist but bake these this morning. It tastes wonderful! I will definitely bake these again! Thank you so much for the detailed recipe and method! 🙂

    Do you have any tips on how to remove the peanut skins from the peanuts quickly? That took the longest for me in the entire baking process :p

  21. Haha thanks! I found a video on YouTube, in which someone was shaking the strainer outside his house (looks like he stays in a kampong house), it was really hilarious 😀 haha, but I felt dumb why I didn’t think about that earlier hehe 🙂

  22. Cristina says:

    Hi there,

    The peanut cookie recipe is fantastic. Everybody loves the cookie I baked.

    Thank you

  23. Joanne says:

    Hi Dear,
    The peanut cookie recipe is super great. I love it. By the way, do you have the recipe for the “caterpillar cookie”?

  24. […] The postal cost of the package was USD97.  Suffice to say it was very, very expensive to send anything from Malaysia.  I can’t remember a year since I’ve been in the US when I have not received a care package for Chinese New Year.  So this year, I decided to make my own Peanut cookies so that I could do a side by side test with the ones from Penang.  Here is the recipe that I used:  (https://food-4tots.com/2012/01/17/peanut-cookies/2/). […]

  25. food-4tots says:

    Yogetha: Yes, you can. 🙂

  26. Eleven says:

    Hi,

    I love the photos of yr peanut cookies and since I love peanut cookies, I tried making them myself. I was hoping to be able to eat them all year round rather than hv them only during CNY.

    However, I am not able to get the color of the cookies to dark brown like yours. Mine is just light brown in color. I roasted my peanuts in the oven instead of dry fry. I roasted them for 40 mins at 180C..

    Is the color of my cookie due to the different way of roasting the peanut? Otherwise, what can it be due to?

    Thanks.

    • food-4tots says:

      Eleven: Did you apply the egg wash on the cookies? 🙂

      • Eleven says:

        Yes, I did. In any case the cookies turned out perfect. My hubby loved them. I will definitely do this for the upcoming CNY. Thank you for sharing your recipe.

        Btw, my name is Eleen. I typed wrongly earlier.

        • food-4tots says:

          Eleen: It’s my pleasure to share. If you still find the colour of the cookies is too light, give them another layer of egg wash. Glad to know that this will be your upcoming CNY cookies. 🙂

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