Here's another Chinese New Year goodie that I love very much since I was a kid - Peanut Cookies! The traditional and authentic chinese peanut cookies are not easy to make at all - first raw peanuts have to be shelled and roasted. The peanut skin is then peeled off and the peanuts are ground into a powder. The peanut powder is then mixed with flour, sugar and oil into a dough before they can be portioned out and baked to deliciousness. These Peanut Cookies I'm featuring today are made via a shortcut method - by using Peanut Butter (hence the name Peanut Butter Cookies!) With peanut butter, all the roasting, peeling and grinding steps are redundant, and they are almost as delicious as the traditional ones!
Making these cookies is really easy because no mixer is needed! All you need is to combine the ingredients together, knead them into a dough, scoop them into round balls, brush them with egg wash and they are ready for the oven! Just note that a good-quality peanut butter is a must to yield delicious peanut butter cookies. I would have used Skippy brand (my favourite peanut butter spread), but I ended up using a local brand here as it's a lot cheaper and thankfully the cookies still taste good. Both chunky or smooth peanut butter will work here - it depends on what kind of cookie you like. Icing sugar is used instead of any other kind of sugar because it will give the cookie a melt-in-mouth-texture. Salt is added to balance out the sweetness and to just give a hint of saltiness. I used canola oil as I couldn't find any peanut oil here, which would have made them even more peanut-y.
These peanut butter cookies won't fall apart when you hold them in your hands but once you put one in your mouth, it will just crumble and melt away. It's rich, peanut-y and sooo delicious that one cookie is definitely not enough!
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| 1) Sift flour, icing sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. | 2) Add in peanut butter. |
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| 3) Add in oil. | 4) Stir with a rubber spatula or with your hand until a dough is formed. |
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| 5) Scoop a spoonful of dough and roll into 1-inch balls or scoop 10 grams of dough and roll into a ball. | 6) Brush the top of the dough with egg wash, making sure they do not drip down to the bottom of the dough, otherwise the bottom may burnt during baking. |
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| 7) Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookies crack and the top is golden-brown. |
Here are other Chinese New Year Goodies on the blog if you are interested!
Chinese Peanut Butter Cookies
INGREDIENTS
- 180 grams plain flour
- 40 grams icing sugar, see Note 1
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 100 grams sweetened peanut butter spread, I used Skippy, chunky or smooth works
- 80 grams peanut oil
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon water
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 180C / 355F (not fan-assisted). Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Set aside.
- Sift flour, icing sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add in peanut butter and oil. Stir with a rubber spatula or with your hand until a dough is formed.
- Scoop a spoonful of dough and roll into 1-inch balls or scoop 10 grams of dough and roll into a ball. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Place them 1 ½-inch apart from each other on the baking sheet.
- Combine egg yolk and water together in a small bowl. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash, making sure they do not drip down to the bottom of the dough, otherwise the bottom may burnt during baking.
- Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookies crack and the top is golden-brown. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet before storing them in an airtight container (or in your belly!)
NOTES
- I have re-tested the recipe in 2022 with Skippy peanut butter and found that 40 grams of icing sugar is sufficient (original recipe calls for 80 grams). As sugar content varies among different brands, the amount of icing sugar required may also vary. I will test the recipe again with natural/unsweetened peanut butter and update the recipe again here.
- Adapted from Dine with Leny
Esmay says
Thank you for the recipe. Made them tonight. First batch I copied it to the T… with the exception of the type of peanut butter (I had only all natural). The result was way too sweet. So made a second batch and halved the powdered sugar. It was still a tad too sweet for my liking. Chinese peanut butter cookies or Chinese desserts in general are very mild in sweetness. So will try my third batch with a quarter sweetness. The texture and peanut butter flavour is excellent by the way. Even with powder sugar reduced it was super crumbly. Also super easy recipe, so will keep with my adjustments.
Jasline (FoodieBaker) says
Hi Esmay! Thank you for the feedback. I'll relook into the recipe.
Amanda says
Made it today and added more peanuts butter. Husband requested more salt. Soft and melt in mouth. Ended up with 37 pieces of 20 gms each. Thank you for this recipe x
Jasline N. says
You are most welcome Amanda! 🙂
Rachelle says
Hi there! I made these yest but it came out hard and didn't have the melt in the mouth texture.. Wonder why.. Appreciate if you could let me know
Jasline N. says
Hi Rachelle, it's a little hard for me to troubleshoot your recipe. Is there any changes you've made?
Serena says
I used Skippy brand creamy peanut butter and followed the recipe accordingly. I felt that the cookies turned out too sweet. For the next batch, I half the amount of recommended sugar, using only 40g – it was better but still has a sweet after taste. Since the peanut butter is already sweetened, my opinion is to cut down on the sugar if you don’t want to have an overdose of sugar with this snack. You won’t feel so guilty eating it too.
Regina says
Hi dear, may I know why is my dough so sticky to the hand. I have added the right amount of ingredients but its still sticky to my hand and I couldn’t roll it into a dough form.
Jasline N. says
Try chilling the dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour. I remember the dough is not very sticky for me but the original author said hers is sticky and suggested dusting the hands lightly with flour when shaping the cookies. Hope this helps!
Joyce says
Hihi, I read your the orher post about rice flour making it melt in the mouth. I am lazy to roast n pound peanuts , wonder can I substitute the flour here with rice flour? Thanks a lot.
Jasline N. says
Hi Joyce, I have not tried this recipe before with rice flour so I'm not sure how the cookies will turn out. If you don't want to roast your own peanuts, maybe you can get pre-ground peanuts, toast them before use?
AL says
Made this 3 times and all of them turned out great!!!!!!!!! Fantastic recipe 🙂 Thank you so much! Followed this exactly - worked so well even with store brand peanut butter
Jasline N. says
Thank you so much AL! I'm so happy you like these peanut butter cookies!
ChgoJohn says
No matter the country of origin,I've yet to meet a peanut butter cookie that I didn't love. Yours are no exception. Happy New Year, Jasline, to you and yours. 🙂
SavoringTime IntheKitchen says
I love peanut butter cookies too! Yours are so cute and look delicious.
Raymund says
Ohhh thats how you make these things, I love them. I think will make this for our bake off at the office
Karen luvswesavory says
This is also my fav. These golden peanut cookies so festive looking.
Taking this opportunity to wish you & family 心想事成, 猴年如意!
Angie@Angie's Recipes says
They are my favourite too, Jasline. I need to bake a huge batch too.
Mary Frances says
The texture is beautiful! I love how crack open as they bake. Definitely a treat!