These Chinese Almond Cookies are the Asian-American version: they have a sweet, buttery and crisp texture with a distinct almond flavor, making them utterly delicious! Ingredients are all readily available in a regular supermarket so no need to hike down to the Asian market. Perfect for Chinese New Year 2025!
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⭐ Why This Recipe is a Star
- Chinese Almond Cookies are buttery and delicious: Despite being non-traditional, they are 1 of my favorite Chinese New Year cookies. They're light, crisp, sweet and buttery! It also has a beautiful golden color, even without any food coloring! (If you want a soft cookie, try these 3-ingredient almond flour cookies.)
- No special ingredients required: like traditional cashew cookies, everything you need for this almond bake is available from a regular grocery store.
Note: these are not the traditional Chinese almond cookies- those, like Asian walnut cookies and Chinese peanut cookies, don't use butter and aren't crunchy! Instead, this is the Asian American version, created by Chinese immigrants in the United States. (I actually prefer it to the original almond cookie recipe!)
🥘 Ingredients
You will need simple ingredients such as:
- Almond Flour: Do not use almond meal, which is much coarser in texture, as the skins are left on before grinding. (The texture of the cookie would totally change and not be as nice.) You can buy Bob's Red Mill brand almond flour or even make your own ground almonds (flour) by processing skinless almonds into a fine powder (in a food processor.)
- All-Purpose Flour: I would advise sifting but have to confess that I usually don't! (Although if your flour looks lumpy, please sift.)
- Unsalted Butter: if you use salted butter, omit the salt
- Whole Eggs + Yolks: only the yolks are used in the batter to make it richer. The whole eggs are for the egg wash: for these almond cookies, because the batter is a light bright yellow, mixing the whole egg with 1-2 drops of water lightens the egg wash and makes it look better on the cookie! (This is unlike my Chinese walnut cookie egg wash in which I recommended using only the egg yolk for a darker color.) Make sure the eggs are at room temperature and not cold, if you don't want them to curdle.
- Caster Sugar: we want a pure almond flavor to shine through so do not substitute with maple syrup or brown sugar, which have a caramel taste.
- Baking Powder: Do not confuse this with bakign soda, they're not interchangeable.
- Salt: this is a flavor enhancer but you can omit it if your butter is on the saltier side. (Every salted butter brand adds different amounts of salt.)
You will also need an electric mixer to make the almond cookie dough.
Note: some people like to add vanilla extract but I don't associate the taste of vanilla with Chinese food! (And have never tasted it in traditional Chinese bakes growing up!)
📖 Variations
- In Asia, easy traditional Chinese almond cookies are made with a neutral vegetable oil. This makes it much quicker to mix the dough (no stand mixer required) and is similar to how we bake Chinese Hua Sheng Bing, although that uses peanut oil instead.
🔪 Step-by-Step Instructions
1a. Allow the butter to soften (but not too much- it should be soft to touch but not melted) then beat it in the bowl of a stand mixer. After the butter has been beaten for a few rounds in the mixer, cream it with the sugar till light and fluffy. (You may need to scrape the bottom and side of the large mixing bowl in the middle of the process.)
Note: It should be about 2x in volume and a pale yellow color. (If the bottom of the mixing bowl feels sandy when you're scraping it with a spatula, that means not all the sugar has been mixed into the butter. White dough, on the other hand, means you've over creamed.)
Note 2: We are using the paddle attachment.
2a. Gently fold in the yolks with a spatula. The dough will become a nice bright yellow.
2b. Next comes the dry ingredients. Gently fold in the salt, making sure it's well distributed.
2c. Next whisk the almond flour and regular flour together in a large bowl.
2d. Fold the flour mixture and baking powder into the dough.
Note: Do not over mix or your dough will become tough.
3. Transfer the dough to an airtight container or Ziplock bag then chill (or freeze.) It needs to rest overnight.
Note: If you rest for only an hour, the almond biscuit will be chewy, not crunchy.
So far, I've only tested overnight and 1 hour resting times. I will keep testing the recipe to see what is the minimum amount of time we can rest the dough for to get the crisp and update you!
Preheat the oven to 350F/ 177C/ 157C fan.
4a. Use a cookie scoop and scoop out 1-inch balls of dough. Next, you need to roll each dough between your palms into a round ball. This will make the dough more compact and smoother.
Note: If not, the cookie will not be perfectly round after baking!
4b. Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets/ parchment paper with at least 2 inches between them, as they will spread. You can decorate the top of each cookie with an almond (optional) then glaze with the yolk wash using a pastry brush.
4c. Bake for 17-20 minutes or till the edges are golden brown.
Allow to cool on a wire rack before storing.
🥡 How to Store
These Chinese New Year cookies can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for 1 week.
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
Tip #1: There are a range of ways you can decorate your delicious cookies. 1 way is to press a nut onto the top of the cookie and they'll look like Chinese coins. Great for ushering in good luck and good fortune in the Year of the Rabbit!
Tip #2: My cookies are garnished with a whole almond in the centre. However, if you're feeling the pinch this year, make your supplies go further by slicing the almonds thinly and topping with a sliced almond instead. (Almonds are expensive after all! For more money saving hacks cooking Chinese food, click here.)
Tip #3: Some people like to add a teaspoon almond extract. Personally, because the recipe uses so much ground almonds, I find that it doesn't add much flavor. (It does make the cookie smell more fragrant though.)
🥗 Other Chinese New Year Recipes
Enjoyed this American Chinese Almond Cookie Recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below! If you REALLY liked these homemade cookies and find them the perfect treat for Lunar New Year, please consider supporting it by buying me a pineapple tart aka coffee! 🙂 (No obligation though!) Thank you and have a great day!
Chinese Almond Cookies 2023 (Buttery)
Equipment
- 1 Stand mixer
- 1 1-inch press and release cookie scoop
Ingredients
- ½ Cup unsalted butter at room temperature. should be softened but not oily.
- ¾ Cup caster white sugar
- 4 egg yolks + 2 whole eggs for glazing My yolks were 69 grams/ 2.43 oz.
- ¾ teaspoon salt Omit or reduce to ¼ teaspoon if using salted butter
- 2 Cups almond flour Do NOT use almond meal!!
- 1½ Cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder NOT baking soda.
- 72 almonds optional, for garnishing. You can also use almond slices instead.
Instructions
Day 1: Making the dough
- Allow the butter to soften (but not too much) then cream it with the sugar till light and fluffy, about doubled in volume and a pale yellow. (You may need to scrape the bottom and side of the large mixing bowl in the middle of the process.)Note: If the bottom of the mixing bowl feels sandy when you're scraping it with a spatula, that means not all the sugar has been mixed into the butter. White dough, on the other hand, means you've over creamed.
- Gently fold in the yolks with a spatula. The dough will become a nice bright yellow.
- Next comes the dry ingredients. Gently fold in the salt, making sure it's well distributed.
- Next whisk the almond flour and regular flour together in a large bowl. Fold the flour mixture and baking powder into the dough.Note: Do not over mix or your dough will become tough.
Day 1: Resting the cookies overnight
- Transfer the dough to an airtight container or Ziplock bag then chill (or freeze.) It needs to rest overnight. Note: If you rest for only an hour, the almond biscuit will be chewy, not crunchy. So far, I've only tested overnight and 1 hour resting times. I will keep testing the recipe to see what is the minimum amount of time we can rest the dough for to get the crisp and update you!
Day 2 or beyond: Baking the cookies
- You can freeze the dough and bake it whenever you want. Alternatively you can do this the next day.Preheat the oven to 350F/ 177C/ 157C fan.
- Use a cookie scoop and scoop out 1-inch balls of dough. Next, you need to roll each dough between your palms to make the dough more compact and smoother. Note: If not, the cookie will not be perfectly round after baking!
- Place each round ball on a parchment paper with at least 2 inches between them, as they will spread. (See post for the minimum distance required.) You can decorate the top of each cookie with an almond (optional) then glaze with the yolk wash using a pastry brush.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes or till the edges are golden brown.
Notes
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.
Nutrition
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