Walnut Cookies Chinese Style

WALNUT COOKIES CHINESE STYLE

Sweets can make you feel like the world revolves around you as a kid. These Chinese walnut biscuits were a favorite sweet treat of my mother’s when she was a child. They were like gold to her; she would stroll back and forth, back and forth, her eyes fixed on the cookies behind the glass case. It’s golden yellow, with perfectly crunchy walnuts all about.

My dad, grandma, and I would visit the Chinese bakery every week during the sweltering summers in Beijing when we indulged in our shameless cravings for all things sweet, crunchy, sprinkled with almonds, and dipped in chocolate. The cookies were delivered to you through a glass window, much like pills from an old-fashioned apothecary. With no frills, bells, or whistles, simply the most basic of practical wrapping, the cookies remained delightfully fresh in the cardboard boxes lined with plastic bags.

On the other hand, these walnut cookies aren’t hidden behind a curtain or perched too high on a shelf. That perfectly crunchy walnut in the middle is the star of these wonderfully rotund cookies that are mildly sweetened but stuffed full of ground walnuts. Enjoy these Chinese walnut cookies with a cup of coffee or black tea in the morning or evening.

Go to the kitchen and grab a bag of walnuts and a few other ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of cake flour(270 g)
• 1/2 tsp. of baking soda (3 g)
• 1/4 tsp. of baking powder (2 g)
• 8 tbsp. of butter or lard (4 oz or 115g, at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup of sugar (115 g)
• 1/4 tsp. of salt (1 g)
• 1 pc. of egg (beaten and divided; the egg I used weighed about 62 g with shell on)
• 3/4 cup of finely chopped toasted walnuts, plus 12 raw walnut halves (75 g)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. To begin, prepare the cake flour by combining the cake flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Butter, sugar, and salt should all be combined in a big bowl and thoroughly combined until the mixture is smooth. After that, combine the flour and butter mixtures, careful not to overmix. When you’ve beaten the egg, save 2 tablespoons of the beaten egg for later, and add the rest of it to the dough. Knead the mixture to form a ball. It’s possible to do this with either a hand or electric mixer. Make a mental note that the dough may seem crumbly, but it will come together as you work with it for a while.
2. Use parchment paper to cover a baking sheet. Make 12 balls from the dough and place them on the baking sheet a few inches apart, making sure they’re all the same size. Ideally, a single baking sheet will hold all the cookies you’ve made.
3. Gently press one-half of the walnut into each cookie piece. Take a kitchen towel and cover the cookies with it for 15 to 20 minutes.
4. The oven should be preheated to 350 degrees F at this time. You can then bake for 20 minutes after brushing with the egg you set aside after the dough has rested. Before removing the cookies from the oven, let them cool for an additional five minutes. Cool and enjoy!