Fah Sang Paeng Chinese Peanut Cookies
Childhood Favouries
As a child my fondest memory of visiting Soho, London's chinatown was scoffing these melt-in-your-mouth cookies. Wrapped in a flimsy foldable box with a gaudy pink ribbon around, (hardly protection) I could never resist slipping my tiny hands in and grabbing some crumbs.
The first time I made them, I stayed faithful to the recipe, second time, I added an egg and slightly manipulated the technique.
To my surprise they came out perfect! To my memory, my stomach and more importantly to my children. My son just loves helping me bake these.... who am I to argue?
300gr Plain Flour
1 tsp (heaped) Baking Powder
1 cup sugar
250 gr of peeled roasted whole peanuts
1 Egg + to brush
130-170ml of Oil
Measure all dry ingredients into the food mixer.
Blitz till peanuts are chunky in size (few seconds only)
Add egg.
Drizzle oil slowly in, till mixture becomes bread-like dough.
If you can, cover and leave to rest for 30mins - 1 hour (easier to shape into balls)
Shape into balls (not too big, bite size best)
Pop into hot oven 180c.
Wait about 5-10 mins. till the cookies have risen and still soft, open oven and flatten with spatula.
Brush liberally with beaten egg, press half a peanut on top of each cookie and brush again liberally with egg, this gives a wonderful gloss.
(Trick: The cookies are so crumbly, I found trying to flatten them before baking only breaks them apart. Flattening them during baking while they are soft and mallable is a great tip.:)
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