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Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies (花生饼) are a traditional Chinese New Year treat. Each melting, crunchy, toasty bite is cause for celebration!
Why you'll love this recipe
The Monday Box archives contains recipes from Australia, Russia, Scotland, Germany, Greece, and Italy. Today I am adding China withChinese New Year Peanut Cookies!
Discovering traditional Chinese peanut cookies was a lucky accident. I was searching for a recipe to try for my annual intercultural Chinese New Year culinary adventure when pictures popped up of a round little cookie that looked very similar to a Chinese almond cookie.
Reading more about Peanut Cookies, I learned that stored in an airtight container, they stay fresh for up to 2 weeks. Monday Box gold star!
All of the authentic Chinese peanut cookies recipes I found used metric measurement. I love baking with metric measurement. Everything is so accurate, making good results much easier. I highly recommend buying a little digital kitchen scale with both metric and non-metric measurement. I think mine cost less than $20 from Amazon.
However, for those of you without a scale, I adapted the traditional recipe to give approximate cup equivalents.
Toasty peanut flavor is the focus of these cookies. A little roasting does amazing things to intensify the flavor of nuts.
All of the original recipes used raw shelled peanuts, readily available at Asian markets, and stove top or oven roasted them.
I bought unsalted roasted peanuts at Trader Joe’s and, following directions I found on Smitten Kitchen, I oven toasted them for a shorter time, just to bring out the flavor.
Traditional peanut cookies are only mildly sweet and are amazingly peanutty. An optional sprinkle of granulated sugar on top before baking can make the sweetness more like most American cookies.
These sweet morsels of peanutty goodness are a celebration of peanut flavor that peanut lovers would enjoy any time of year!
Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions.The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Follow instructions to roast peanuts.
- Grind the slightly cooled roasted peanuts in a food processor until the texture of small grits or cream of wheat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and salt. Mix in the ground peanuts. Stir in half of the cooking oil into the bowl,then knead the mixture by hand, adding additional oil by tablespoons, until a smooth dough forms (about 5 minutes) and a teaspoon of dough can be rolled into small cookie balls without crumbling.
- Roll teaspoon portions of dough into balls. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Press a peanut half into the top of each dough ball. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.
Storage
Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Chinese Almond Cookies are a crunchy butter cookie full of delicious almond flavor. These traditional Chinese New Year Cookies are a standard in American Chinese restaurants.
Chinese Milk Candyis chewy marshmallow nougat with crunchy peanuts.
Pineapple Cookies, also called pineapple tarts,are beautiful shortbread cookies with pineapple jam tucked inside.
Butter Cookie Dragonsare not traditional for Chinese New Year, but children love them.
For some great Chinese New Year cookie ideas, take a look at this roundup of10 Chinese New Year Treats!
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Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies (花生饼)
These traditional Lunar New Year treats are full of toasty peanut flavor in a crunchy cookie that will melt in your mouth.
5 from 2 votes
Print Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Asian
Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes
Total Time: 1 hour hour
Servings: 40
Calories: 128kcal
Author: Wendy Sondov
Ingredients
- 300 g unsalted peanuts about 2 ½ cups plus a handful for decorating
- 200 g granulated sugar about 1 cup
- 250 g all-purpose flour about 2 cups
- pinch salt
- ¾ cup vegetable oil canola, peanut, olive, etc.
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup granulated sugar for topping optional
Instructions
To oven roast the peanuts: Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Line a baking pan with foil and spread peanuts out in a single layer on top of the foil. If using raw peanuts, bake for 15-20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes until golden brown and fragrant. If using roasted peanuts, bake for 5 minutes only, stirring after 2 ½ minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.
Lower the oven temperature to 325˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Grind the slightly cooled roasted peanuts in a food processor until the texture of small grits or cream of wheat.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and salt. Add the ground peanuts. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix until well combined.
Drizzle half of the cooking oil into the bowl. Mix with the wooden spoon/spatula. Then knead the mixture by hand, adding additional oil by tablespoons, until a smooth dough forms (about 5 minutes) and a teaspoon of dough can be rolled into small cookie balls without crumbling. Depending on how finely the peanut are ground the amount of oil needed will vary. Some of the oil may not be used.
Scoop teaspoon portions of dough (about 10 grams) and roll into balls. Place on the prepared baking sheet at least 1 inch apart. Press a peanut half into the top of each dough ball.
Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon of water to make an egg wash. Use a pastry brush to brush the wash over the top of each cookie ball. Optional: Sprinkle granulated sugar over the egg wash coated dough balls.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. The cookies should be golden brown. Turn off the oven and leave the cookies inside to bake another 5 minutes before removing them.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
Packing tips
These cookies can be a bit fragile but are sturdier when wrapped in pairs with bottoms together. Double wrap pairs of cookies in plastic wrap. Then place snugly in an airtight container or in a columns in a zip lock bag for mailing. Be sure there is no movement in the box.
Nutrition
Calories: 128kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 58mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 6IU | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg
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First Published: February 18, 2015. Last Updated: January 15, 2023.Updated for better reader experience.
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