Chinese Cookies...35º

A few years ago after attending many Fishtrap events and showing an interest in the organization I was invited to join "Fishtraps Community Board"...I told them upfront that I would like to help with the annual book sale and since my expertise is in food, they could put me on the list to furnish refreshments for their events...Now Wallowa County is in the middle of the "Big Read" and immersed in Chinese Culture while reading the "Joy Luck Club"...Last night our guest speaker was BeeBee Tam Beck a professor of Asian American Literature, from Portland..She talked about the Chinese Zodiac  and about "What is "real" Chinese food?


Janie Tippett and I volunteered to bring refreshments for the evenings presentation...Janie found a recipe for Chinese Almond Cookies in her authentic Chinese cookbook, shared her recipe with me and we were both in our element as we experimented, making these cookies...We blanched almonds, I made almond flour in the food processor, she used butter and honey, I used a combination of lard and butter and molasses...and we adjusted the amount of almond extract that should or shouldn't go into this cookie recipe...We don't know how close we came to making "Authentic Almond Cookies" but they quickly disappeared from the serving trays, as one lady mused "these are just like I remember as a child" when we visited China Town in Portland, can I have your recipe?

Chinese Almond Cookies

Below are two of the recipes I found on the internet, and I, never one to make a recipe exactly like it says combined parts of these recipes with Janie's and came up with my own recipe, adjusting the amount of flour to match the liquid, keeping the cookies on the rich side...I almost always bake two or three cookies testing them before I start baking the entire batch...Enough about cookies...Hugs to all....OWAV:)

Chinese Almond Cookies

from Cooking for Engineers

3 cups (375 g) flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (60 g) almond flour (ground almonds)
12 oz. butter, softened
1 cup (210 g) sugar
1 egg
1 oz. water
1 tsp almond extract
42 whole almonds, blanched
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and ground almonds together in a bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg, water, and almond extract and beat until incorporated. Beat in the dry ingredients until just combined. Form 1-inch balls of cookie dough, placed a few inches apart (for spreading) on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Top each dough ball with an almond and brush the top of the cookie with egg wash. Now you can refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes, but I didn’t (lazy). If you do refrigerate the dough, the recipe calls for 20 minutes of baking time. Since I didn’t refrigerate my dough, I baked for 15 minutes and they were perfect. Makes about 42 cookies. (Michael’s recipe says 24, so I am guessing his cookies are a lot bigger than mine.)

Chinese Almond Cookies
Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Since the flavor of these comes exclusively from almond extract, be sure to buy a very high quality one. Lard produces the particular crisp texture, as it always did. You can substitute solid white shortening, but its flavor is not quite the same. You can also substitute margarine, but it changes the flavor slightly, too. Corn syrup also adds to the texture. If you substitute more flavorful molasses or honey, expect the flavor of the cookie to change. It won't taste as strongly of almond.

3 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup lard, white shortening, or margarine
4 tablespoons corn syrup, molasses or honey
1 egg
3 tablespoons almond extract
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 cup blanched and peeled almonds (48, to be exact)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cream the shortening and sugar together. Add beaten egg.

Slowly add the flour, baking soda, almond extract and syrup to the mixture and mix until smooth, scraping down the bowl a couple of times.

Take 1 tablespoon of the dough and roll it into a ball. Continue until all dough has been used.

On greased cookie sheets (or parchment-lined sheets), flatten each ball into a thick cookie; about 1/2 inch. Arrange them about 2 inches apart; they spread. Press an almond into the center of each.

Bake on greased cookie sheet in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes. (They are brown when done. Be careful not to overbake.)