The Easiest Thing You Can Make This Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year is coming up, right, and I’m obviously being targeted by ads, right?
One of these TikTok shared to Instagram shared to Facebook videos showed up on my feed, about how easy it is to make peanut cookies for CNY.
I was like ‘hell no, don’t you try to downplay the sacred peanut cookies.’
I'm not sure of your stats in CNY cookie consumption, but peanut cookies are the greatest of all time.
It’s not as showy as the pineapple tarts, or cutesy as the white crumbly rabbit one, (My favourite is ironically the Indian murukku) but everyone will take one of the peanut cookies. It’s is the Ringo of CNY cookies - understated, yet irreplaceable.
It’s tied to our heartstrings, upbringing, culture, memories.
For this TikTok video to claim that it is easy, to spread misinformation, makes my blood boil.
Let me prove you wrong.
Let me try out this ‘foolproof’ recipe.
25 minutes later, I was standing over the kitchen counter covered in shame.
It WAS that easy.
It WAS that simple.
What’s that saying? When you’re showing a middle finger to someone, the other three fingers are pointing to yourself?
So, here’s the recipe:
1 part ground roasted peanut
1 part sugar
1 part neutral oil
2 part flour
That’s it.
It's that easy it's upsetting.
It's that easy I've tried different versions.
As I’m writing this, another batch is baking in the oven.
Sure, different approaches affect the taste and texture. You can tweak with almond butter, almond meal, tahini, different types of sugar, lard, rice flour if you want to make it gluten-free, chocolate chips and nuts, chill overnight etc., but I’ve yet to make an ‘unsatisfactory’ bunch.
Because flour, sugar, oil, peanut translates to sugar, sugar, fat, fat.
There's no reason for it to be not delicious or addictive.
You don’t even need to knead the mixture - the crumbly cracks aren’t a bug; it’s a feature.
If Wordle were a recipe, it’d be this peanut cookie.
The world is trying so hard to deconstruct why Wordle is so popular, let me break it down for you.
1. It’s free to play;
2. It’s challenging enough to make you feel smart, but not difficult enough to make you feel dumb.
3. It doesn’t take long.
Just like Wordle, peanut cookies are cheap, easy, and fast to make.
And just like Wordle, there’s a cheat code.
We have another word for ‘grounded roasted peanut’, it’s peanut butter.
So the final recipe to make a tray of 24 x 15g peanut cookies:
150g plain flour
75g icing sugar
75g peanut butter
60g sunflower oil*
I added a pinch of salt. Mix together until malleable, roll into tiny balls, brush with egg wash. Make the circular indent with a straw, the cap of your pen, your toothpaste, then into a 160°C oven for 20 minutes.
* I reduced the oil by a tbsp. Feel free to adjust to your liking, I doubt it’d matter.
I did not know where to place the anger.
The Asian grocery, the online businesses, smiling aunties charging $20 per container, (when the most expensive ingredient is probably the actual container) or my relish of control to never thought of making it myself?
Since it tastes so good, it has to be difficult to make, right?
Some auntie must’ve stolen someone else’s family secret, written on a piece of paper, memorised then burnt or swallowed in a boat.
The reality is, you can make it in 20 minutes.
With an air fryer.
Heck, your child can do it.
Perhaps the anger was the truth that another childhood joy has been revealed to be something obvious and simple.
Or maybe, I was just having trouble accepting some Tiktok video on the internet was right.
Hana wasn’t at the dumpling-making table yesterday with all her bigger sisters.
She saw it as an obstacle to play with toys she’s never seen before.
I had to tell her, the whole point of making dumplings together isn’t about the dumplings, but the memories of people gathering around the table. Toys will always be there, people who are willing to make food together with you, not so much.
I don’t see how this can’t be applied to peanut cookies.
So if you're really missing home, or are after some low-commitment Chinese New Year cooking, in a hurry, or are trying to impress your Chinese family-in-law, try this recipe.
I won't tell.
Happy Year of the Tiger.