Shopping list for +/- 30 cookies
100g mung bean flour
100g whole almonds or almond flour
95g icing sugar
70g cold butter (or shortening)
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 free range egg, beaten
Today we bake beautiful Chinese cookies, we enjoy them with tea this afternoon. It is also a nice gift, for Chinese New Year or with the Moon Festival. Not necessarily a New Year's cookie, but more suitable for all occasions!
How to make the Macao Almond Cookies
Place both types of flour and the sugar in a large bowl.
Stir it all together until it is well combined.
Weigh the cold butter and cut it into small cubes.
Add the butter cubes to the flour mixture.
Rub the butter into the flour.
Rub until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Add the almond extract.
Add the water in a trickle.
Knead it into an elastic dough.
Push the dough into the mold.
Scrape off excess dough.
Rub the top side gently smooth.
Tap the cookies out of the mold.
Place the cookies in the fridge.
- by 'tap the cookies out of the mould' we mean give the mold a few sharp taps on your worktop, then the cookies will come out easy and pretty
- place the baking tray with the cookies in the fridge for at least 1 hour before baking, our first cookies really ran out horribly!
Preheat the oven to 160°C and get the cookies from the fridge
Brush the biscuits with egg.
Bake the cookies +/- 25 minutes.
Leave the oven door slightly open.
Bake the biscuits a light golden.
ahhhhg! Here they go again! After a night in the refrigerator they still run out again! More on this later, in a blog about failure. We cut the cookies staight and that have to do, so disappointing!
Allow the Macao Almond Cookies to cool on a wire rack.
Serve the cookies with a cup of tea in your prettiest China ;)
Xin Nian Kuai Le, Happy New Year!