Chinatown's almond cookies

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by San Francisco’s Chinatown. Going there was a rare treat, but I always knew what I wanted when we got there: a box of almond cookies.

Packed up in a pretty pink box with a string tie, they were unlike anything we ate down in San Jose, which was pretty Midwestern when it came to food then. 

To me, Chinese almond cookies tasted more like Chinatown than any other sweet I tried, not that there was ever that huge a selection.

Later, when I was older, I tried to relive that experience, only to find that the flavors and textures were off. The cookies were bland instead of exciting, tasted of fat and sugar rather than almonds, and tended to be slightly soft, not tantalizingly crispy, as I remembered.

And so, of course, I had to rectify this.

Perfect snacking

As you can see, I’ve been on a bit of a warpath lately. Chinese American food is sooo good, but we never get to really eat it anymore. It’s as American as, say, Tex-Mex or Red Italian, and I am all in favor of seeing it make a genuine comeback. But cooked with pride and made with even better ingredients than before, of course.

Almond cookies seem like an obvious choice for this first salvo. I hope you agree that these are just what we need for snacktime.

Updated Chinatown almond cookies

Tèzhì Tángrénjiē xìngrén bĭnggān 特製唐人街杏仁餅乾

Chinese American

Makes 32

Cookies:

¾ cup | 145 g organic solid white shortening, or good lard

½ cup | 100 g white sugar

¼ cup | 45 g coconut sugar, or packed dark brown sugar

Whip the sugars, fat, & egg together

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon almond extract

¾ cup | 100 g ground almonds, or almond flour

1¾ cups | 165 g unbleached pastry flour

¾ teaspoon sea salt

¾ teaspoon baking soda

Topping:

1 large egg, lightly beaten

32 whole almonds, either unblanched or blanched (i.e., with or without skin)

1. Place the shortening (or lard), both sugars, 1 egg, and both extracts in the bowl of a food processor equipped with a metal blade. Whiz it for around a minute, stopping the machine now and then to scrape down the sides, until you have a very light, creamy mixture.

2. Mix together the ground almonds (or almond flour), pastry flour, salt, and baking soda in a small work bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the food processor and pulse the cookie dough until it is evenly mixed.

 

Make logs & chill

3. Have 2 sheets of parchment paper or foil ready. Scrape out half of the cookie dough onto each sheet, spread it out into a log-like shape, and then roll the dough up in the paper or foil like a cigar. Freeze the dough for about 20 minutes, just until it is solid but still easy to cut.

4. Place 2 racks near the center of your oven and turn it on to 275°F | 135°C; don’t use the convection setting. Line 2 baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper.

5. Cut each log of dough into 16 even pieces. (This is easy: cut each log in half, then each piece into half again, then half again, then half again; see Tip.) Place them on the lined sheets about 2 inches | 5 cm apart.

6. Brush each slice with the beaten egg, and then press a whole almond in the center. Bake the cookies for 25 minutes. Rotate the sheets from top to bottom and back to front, and then increase the heat to 325°F | 160°C. Continue to bake them for about 10 minutes more. When they are golden brown, remove them from the oven and let them cool to room temperature. Keep them in an airtight container or freeze for longer storage.

Oven ready

Tips

If you can hunt down some good lard, try that. It’s wonderful.

Even better, make your own lard: Cut some chilled pork fat (it’s much easier to work with when it’s very cold) into small dice. Place the fat in a saucepan, add a couple of tablespoons of water, cover the pan, and set it over medium-low heat. Stir the fat as needed to keep the solids from burning. As soon as you have a nice layer of fat on the bottom, remove the lid so that the water can evaporate and continue to cook the fat, adjusting the heat as necessary. It is ready when the solids are a toasty brown. Drain the fat through a sieve into a container, and then refrigerate it. 

The toppings

Lard will keep a very long time if kept cold. And be sure to save the cracklings – one of my mother-in-law’s favorite sneaky snacks was white rice topped with cracklings, a bit of melted lard, and a drizzle of soy sauce. I have to agree with her here… this is pretty amazing stuff and is much better than it sounds, all buttery and crunchy.

Whenever you need to cut up things like pastry dough or cookie dough, see if you can make a number that is easily divisible by 4, like 8, 16, 32, and 64. The reason for this is that you then don’t need to measure the dough with a ruler, but rather simply slice pieces in half until you have the correct number of pieces. Brainlessly easy.

Elephant ear cookies

You probably eaten (and loved) palmiers, those delightful swirls of puff pastry rolled up with nothing more than cinnamon and sugar in order to form simple, crunchy cookies. 

And I agree, those are indeed delicious, as well as elegant.

But how about something approximately a zillion times better? For that you need to try the Chinese version. 

And by the way, these are nothing close to elegant.

Instead of the classic palmier shape that has both sides curled toward the center (palmier is French for palm tree, but don’t ask me why these look like palm trees or fronds… I’d call these bunny heads for sure), the Chinese version is just rolled up in one direction with the regular filling. 

Yup, lamination

And so, if you are a fan of The Great British Baking Show, you might even recognize that the correct ancestors of these elephant ears very likely were French arlettes. That is why, in the immortal words of Paul Hollywood, you will find lamination galore. (For the Netflix deprived, lamination means lots of distinct layers.)

However, things suddenly turn decidedly decadent at this point. 

Not yet content with the sugar and spice level at this point, you will now sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on your work surface, dredge each slice in this topping, and then roll in out until it is the size of a large man’s hand. It won’t be as thick as a large man’s hand at this point, but have patience, for it has yet to be baked.

For when these cookies are slid into a hot oven, they will puff up enticingly. Even better, that extra sugar will caramelize around the edge and on the bottom, making this incredibly crispy and satisfyingly crunchy. 

Trails in the cinnamon sugar filling

In fact, they become so flaky that these are best eaten standing up in an empty bathtub. I’m not kidding.

You'll occasionally find these in Taiwanese-style (or even Hong Kong-style) bakeries under a variety of names, like krispies in English or buffalo ears (níuĕr 牛耳) in Chinese, so there doesn't seem to be any agreement anywhere, except that these are quite possibly the best little secret a bakery can have.

Elephant ear cookies

Dàxiàng ĕrduó sū 大象耳朵酥

Taiwan

Press the filling into the dough

Makes 6 enormous cookies

Cookies:

1 package (2 sheets, 17.3 ounces | 490 g) best quality frozen puff pastry

¼ cup | 50 g granulated (caster) sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (see Tips)

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Spray oil

Topping:

½ cup | 100 g granulated (caster) sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Smoosh down the roll into a coil

1. Thaw the puff pastry as directed on the package, but keep it cold. Combine the sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl, and crush any lumps you happen across.

2. Set one rack in the center of your oven and heat it to 400°F (200°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with oil.

3. Unroll one sheet of puff pastry on a big piece of parchment paper and open it up. Keep the second sheet in the refrigerator, as puff pastry needs to remain cold until it’s shaped and baked. It’s ok if the sheet breaks along the fold lines, as you’ll be dealing with that soon enough. Gently roll out the dough without adding any extra flour until it is an even rectangle and is fairly smooth; the size is unimportant. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the surface, and then roll the puff pastry up from one of the long sides. If your kitchen is hot, transfer the roll to the refrigerator to chill and keep the sugar from melting while you repeat this step with the rest of the cookie ingredients, and then chill that second roll, too.

Sprinkle with the topping

4. Mix the topping ingredients together in a work bowl. You’ll need about a heaping tablespoon of the topping per cookie. Working on one chilled roll at a time, slice each crosswise into 3 even pieces. Sprinkle a teaspoon or two of the topping on the parchment paper, and then set one rolled piece on its end. Press it down gently to form a flattened coil.

5. Roll out the coil to make an oval disc about 8 x 4 inches (20 x 10 cm), sprinkling the rest of the topping on it, flipping it over a couple of times as you work, and then transfer it and any sugar underneath it to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with one more, keeping around 1 inch | 2 cm between the cookies, as they won’t spread much, but this will make them easier to remove later on. Sprinkle a teaspoon or so of the topping evenly over each cookie, and then slide in the oven. Work on the second sheet while the first sheet is in the oven, and keep this rhythm going so that you have one tray in the oven while the next tray of cookies is being formed. 

Roll out the coil into a cookie

6. Check the cookies at around 7 minutes and every minute after that. (My oven took about 10 minutes per sheet.) They are done when the edges are gently caramelized and the cookies are puffy and golden. Slide the parchment paper with the cookies off onto a cool, heatproof surface, and then once they are relatively easy to handle, peel them off of the paper to cool thoroughly on a cake rack. Repeat the rolling and baking until all of the cookies are done. I think you can store in an airtight container at room temperature, but to be honest I’ve never actually proceeded to the storing part of this recipe, as they disappear the moment they hit the cake rack.

Tips

Caramelization around the edges, too

Use really good quality frozen puff pastry here (not the knock-off brands), since you want to taste the butter and you want lots of layers. I usually buy Pepperidge Farms for this.

Likewise, the cinnamon should be fresh and not the musty stuff that’s been hanging around for ages. Health food stores often sell ground cinnamon in bulk so that you can buy a small amount at a time.

Crunchy walnut cookies

Photograph by Scott Peterson, Edible East Bay

Edible East Bay's newest issue has an interview with me that features the husband and the bunnies. 

This was a lot of fun to do, as we made steamed bunny and hedgehog buns filled with red bean paste and walnuts. 

A huge shoutout and thanks to writer Anna Mindess, publisher Cheryl Koehler, and photographer Scott Peterson! 

And if you want to make your own edible critters (Little Bean obviously does not approve of that in this picture), check out the video in the middle of the article, while the recipes are right here.

P.S., I'll be a featured speaker and offering a culinary workshop at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 11 and 12, so hope to see you if you there!

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Walnut cookies have been an old standby in Cantonese bakeries around here for as long as I can remember. The only real problem is that they tend to be hefty, sweet, and more than a little light in the walnut department.

On the other hand, these dainty little morsels from Jiangsu (the province that lies just above Shanghai) are delicate, barely sweet, and packed with all of the natural flavor and texture of fresh walnuts. They’re really crunchy, too, and that makes me totally happy.

Like most Yangtze River tea snacks, these are designed to be savored in the afternoon alongside a hot cup of green tea. They’re not made with kids in mind (although no child I know of would ever refuse a handful) because these sophisticated Nanjing-style pastries emphasize that nutty flavor over sweetness, balance the fat and flour with an assured hand, and are meant to be enjoyed in three or so measured bites.

Perfect tea nibbles

If you are a Cantonese cookie aficionado like me, the absence of baking soda in here will immediately grab your attention. The best Cantonese bakeries around here in the Bay Area almost always have fresh almond cookies for sale, and occasionally even walnut ones will also be displayed. However, southerly cookies from lesser commercial bakeries tend to have a heavy whiff of something alkaline, and when that comes up against poor quality fat and too much sugar, you really can’t taste much else. And that’s why you want to have a recipe like this up your sleeve.

Make a batch of these and prepare to be converted.

Crunchy walnut cookies

Táorén sūbĭng 桃仁酥餅

Jiangsu

Chop up toasted walnuts

Makes 36 cookies

Cookies:

2½ cups (400 g) cake or pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ cup (100 g) white shortening or lard, room temperature

½ cup packed (90 g) black or dark brown sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature

⅓ cup (80 g) chopped, toasted walnuts, cooled

Topping:

1 large egg, lightly beaten

36 walnut halves or quarters

1. Heat your oven to 375°F (190°C) and set 2 racks in the center. Line two baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper.

2. Use a whisk to toss the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium work bowl. Beat the shortening and sugar together in a large work bowl with a stand or hand mixer until the mixture is light. Add the dry ingredients, eggs, and walnuts to form a crumbly, sandy dough that forms a ball when compressed in your fist. (If it does not come together easily, sprinkle a little bit of water on the dough and mix it in thoroughly.)

Sandy texture

3. Form the dough into approximately 36 smooth balls about the size of a walnut (around 20 g each) and set them on the lined baking sheets. They do not have to be too far apart, as they will rise a bit, but will not spread much. Use the palm of your hand to lightly flatten each ball into a disc.

4. For the topping, brush each disc with the extra beaten egg, and then press a walnut half or quarter into the center before dabbing a little bit of egg on the nut, too. Bake the cookies for around 18 minutes, rotating the sheets from front to back and top to bottom about halfway through. The cookies are done when they are a light golden brown and the egg wash has turned the color of tea. Remove from the oven and slide them onto a heatproof surface to cool. The cookies are best when they are no longer warm, as this gives them a chance to turn crunchy. Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container.

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Cheesy cookies

When I lived in Taiwan those eight wonderful years, I became happily acquainted with China’s love for cookies. Chocolate chip cookies and brownies were not yet common and in fact became objects of great desire for me, along with cheesecake and artichokes – in other words, anything unobtainable possessed a definite allure for every expat I knew. (Case in point: during my first year there, I once had to bring a load of Oreos to an American nun friend in Hong Kong to satisfy her cravings, but that is another story for another time.)

However, none of that mattered in the long run because a wonderful cookie culture already existed. The best came out of the local Shanghainese and Cantonese bakeries, and what I discovered was that I was a complete sucker for the combination of a sweet cookie with savory edges. The Sea Moss Sandies we looked at a couple of weeks ago are a good example.

In fact, one of the hallmarks of southern cooking in China is the juxtaposition of sweet against salty. Chaozhou in particular has a deep love for this delicate balance, as can be tasted in such divine steamed dim sum as Fun Gor (fěnguǒ 粉粿), which have lightly sweet wrappers made out of translucent wheat starch and a savory jumble of toasted peanuts, pressed bean curd, salted radish, and things like that hidden inside.

When we lived in Taipei, I came to look forward to strange flavor combinations that always managed to turn into addictions for me. A lovely example of this is crushed peanut brittle with cilantro or the large night-market spring rolls that were actually Chaozhou popia. The locals call these rùnbǐng 潤餅, and they were made by filling a huge wrapper like a burrito with things like shreds of char siu pork, carrots, fried shallots, bean sprouts, and a sprinkling of sweet ground peanuts.

The not-so-secret ingredient

Another personal addiction is this cookie. Here, the main seasoning is cheesy courtesy of fermented bean curd, which is called nanru in South China and dòufǔrǔ 豆腐乳 most other places. It possess a slight funk that I find delightful in such a surprising place as this. Think of it as a brilliant combination of cookie and cracker, like chewing a shortbread cookie and a Cheez-It at the same time, but only better.

The Cantonese bakeries always made these as rather hard cookies, but I’ve come to prefer these light, not-too-sweet confections that beg you to wolf down way more than is sensible. These would be a sophisticated treat for a cocktail party, and yet kids find them as irresistible as I do.

Nanru cookies

Nánrǔ xiǎobǐng 南乳小餅

Guangdong

Makes 6 to 7 dozen (1-inch) cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter, salted or unsalted

¾ cup sugar

3 cubes fermented bean curd cheese (nanru)

1 large egg, at room temperature

2½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking ammonia, optional

¼ cup white sesame seeds

 1. Start this at least 3 hours before serving to give the dough time to chill. Place the softened butter and sugar in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and whirl them around until the butter becomes light. Add the fermented bean curd cheese and egg, and then process the mixture for a couple of minutes until the cheese is fully incorporated and the butter is once again smooth.

Ready to chill

2. Toss the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and baking ammonia together in a medium work bowl. Add this to the food processor and pulse these together until the dough forms a clean ball. Remove the dough to a plastic bag and chill it for a couple of hours.

3. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and heat it to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper and pour the sesame seeds into a wide bowl.

Roll the dough in sesame

4. Use a spoon to break up the dough, and then form it into balls about ¾ inch in diameter. As you roll them in your hands, the dough’s surface will become a bit tacky, and this will allow the sesame seeds to stick to the dough; if your hands or the kitchen are not warm enough, wet your hands before rolling the dough. Drop each ball into the sesame seeds to coat only one side, and then place them 1 inch apart with the seed sides up on the lined baking sheets; you’ll end up with about 3 baking sheets’ worth of cookies. Bake these 1 sheet at time for 11 to 13 minutes. When done, the cookies will puff up, be a golden brown on the bottom, and there will be some cracks in at least some of them. Immediately remove the cookies from the hot pan and let them come to room temperature. Store in an airtight container or freeze.