Macau Almond Cookies

Just last week, Christine from the beautiful blog Vermilion Roots invited me to join her and some fellow food bloggers for a Chinese New Year cookie party. Just when I thought the holiday cookie swaps were over, here we are going cookie crazy all over again!

When I visited The Wok Shop in San Francisco a few years back, I ended up with 2 carved wooden molds, one for mooncakes and the other for almond cookies. After all this time, I still hadn’t gotten around to using the almond cookie mold, so I thought this cookie party would be the perfect time to break it in.As you can probably guess, these almond cookies originate from Macau, a city just across the way from Hong Kong. These treats are similar in taste to the almond cookies that you get in those bright pink boxes in the Asian aisle of your local market, but more traditional, vegan, and decidedly more elegant.

Tastewise, Macau Almond Cookies are like a crumbly version of Nutter Butters. These are dense and powdery in texture, and have an almost savory quality about them. These are delicious with a ripe cup of Puerh or some smooth, steeped Yunnan Golden Curls, like these from Adagio Teas If you love French macaron shells or Italian amaretti cookies, you’ll love these too. And don’t feel like you have to use a fancy Chinese cookie mold to make these. You can easily shape the dough into flat rounds and finish them off your own signature cookie stamps!Check out the list below for many more fresh and tasty batches of Chinese New Year cookies! These uber-talented food bloggers have been baking up a storm of irresistible goodies. Don’t be shy, munch your way through all of them…these virtual cookies are fabulously calorie-free!

Macau Almond Cookies

Makes 1 dozen medium-sized cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup almond powder

3/4 cup mung bean flour

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tsp almond extract

2 Tbsp water

flour, for prepping cookie mold

Equipment:

mixing bowl

almond cookie mold

pastry brush

cookie sheet lined with parchment

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together until you get an evenly mixed cookie dough. The dough will look crumbly and on the dry side, but should stick together when you firmly press the crumbs together.

2. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Dust the inside of the mold generously with flour using a pastry brush. Take care to get into all the nooks and crannies of your mold design. Stuff the mold with the correct amount of dough until it is just full. Press the dough in firmly.

3. Give the mold a hard and deliberate smack against a durable, edged surface to release them. Use one hand to hold the mold and your other hand to catch the cookie, or use the release technique I used when making mooncakes. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.

4. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until the cookies look just set on the outside. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool while still on the hot baking sheet. Let the cookies cool completely before serving. Happy Chinese New Year!!

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