Annika Eats

Peanut Cookies

Melt in your mouth cookies filled with peanut butter. Ive taken these traditional Chinese New Year cookies and made them simple yet delicious. 

These eggless cookies are perfect for the beginner baker. They take hardly any time to whip up and require no fancy ingredients. Everything is added into a large bowl and it is mixed together until it forms a dough. They are egg washed (optional) and baked with a little peanut on top. It gets devoured as quickly as it takes to bake. Now, why I mentioning its ease of preparation so fast? Read on to know more. 

When I traveled to Singapore for the first time I was greeted by a roasted peanut aroma at the airport. There was this bakery that sold all these little tea party cookies, cakes and pastries. They were picture perfect and I couldn’t help myself but enter the store. As I had just landed I didn’t want to spend a lot of time in the airport bakery so I decided to pick up a bag of Peanut cookies and eat them on my way out. I put one cookie on my tongue and it disappeared in seconds and all that was left was a peanut in my mouth. It’s like it played a trick on my mind. But my mouth was filled with the flavor of peanuts. I did it again, put another cookie in my mouth and before chewing it, poof! It was gone. I couldn’t help but question what these cookies were made of and so I kept on tasting – you know – to test and see what is this magical cookie. Before I knew it, the cookies were over and I wasn’t even out of the airport yet. 

During my stay in Singapore I looked around for the cookies and tried many but none of them were as good as the airport bakery cookies. Unfortunately on my way out I didn’t get to have them as they were not available, so when I got back home I HAD to recreate the experience and make them. The first batch was okay but not like I had tasted, since then I have tweaked the recipe multiple times and today I have the perfect Peanut cookie that melts away in your mouth. Definitely not as perfect as the ones I’ve had in Singapore but close enough. 

Interesting enough when I visited Singapore again, I didn’t find the bakery as the airport had changed completely and I haven’t been able to find them since. I don’t have a name nor do I have the packaging to try and search for them online. But am sure if you visit Singapore you will be able to source these cookies from every little bakery store. They were also easily available in Malaysia.  

Now that we have talked about my experience with these cookies, let us get baking and make some. Happy Lunar New Year Ninjas!

Peanut Cookies

Melt in your mouth cookies filled with peanut butter. Ive taken these traditional Chinese New Year cookies and made them simple yet delicious.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course cookie, Dessert, Finger food, High Tea, Snack, Sweet tooth, tea time
Cuisine Chinese, Malaysian, Singaporean
Servings 24 Cookies

Equipment

  • Large mixing bowl
  • Spatula
  • Baking tray
  • Baking paper
  • Brush

Ingredients
  

  • 250 gm
  • 100 gm Flour
  • 65 gm Castor sugar
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • 1 tbsp Peanut oil
  • 50 gm Peanuts whole
  • 1 Egg to wash the top - Optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180℃ and line a cookie tray with baking paper.
  • In a large bowl add the peanut butter, flour, castor sugar, baking powder, peanut oil and stir together until it form a dough.
  • You should be able to pinch of dough in your hands and roll it into a ball.
  • Line them on the prepared tray, beat the egg and brush the dough balls with it. Stud each ball with a peanut and bake for 13-15 mins until dry to the touch and the egg wash is glossy.

Notes

  • They will not rise or spread in the tray while baking hence you can place them close to each other but leave at least an inch of space to allow even heat flow.
  • To keep these eggless, remove the egg wash on top.
  • Do not over bake these cookies, they will get firm as they cool on the tray.

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