Cooking For Engineers

[Cooking For Engineers]

Go to Test Recipes: Chinese Almond Cookies

Article Digest:
Chinese-style almond cookies have been sold in the Chinatown of Los Angeles for over fifty years. When I found this copy cat recipe by Todd Wilbur, I knew I had to give it a try.

One of the ingredients in Todd Wilbur's recipe is lard. From experience, I knew the Armour brand lard just wouldn't do. (In the past, when I used Armour lard in sweet pastries, it seemed to produce weird off flavors.) After asking every one of my local supermarkets and boutique grocers for high quality leaf lard, I realized that I was not going to be able to find it. So, I tried the recipe with butter and with Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening (which is made with mechanically pressed organic palm fruit oil that hasn't been additionally processed in any way). Both recipes were delicious - as expected, the shortening almond cookies had a lighter, crispier texture, but not quite as much fullness of flavor. Many tasters did comment that the shortening made almond cookies had a stronger almond flavor and may have tasted a little sweeter. In the end, the recipe I recommend is has a mix of both butter and shortening. If you do choose to use shortening, I recommend avoiding any that contains partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

For the all butter recipe, I assembled all the ingredients: 3 cups (375 g) all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup (60 g) almonds), 1 cup (200 g) sugar, 1 large egg, 12 ounces butter, 1 ounce water, 1 teaspoon almond extract, and 24 almonds.
[IMG]

I used a blender to grind the 60 g almonds into a fine powder. Because the almonds had a tendency to stick to the sides of the blender carafe, I had to use a spatula to scrape down the sides a few times to get an even grind.
[IMG]

This is what the almonds looked like after the grind.
[IMG]

I whisked the flour, salt, baking soda, and freshly ground almond powder together.
[IMG]

Then I used a stand mixer to cream the butter (shortening or butter/shortening combination) with the sugar, egg, almond extract, and water. If the butter isn't fully softened, the sides of the mixing bowl will need to be scraped down once or twice before the mixture will be smooth and without lumps.
[IMG]

I added the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mixed briefly to combine. I then formed the dough into 1-in. dough balls. I then pressed an almond or almond half onto the top of each ball. Refrigerating the dough balls for fifteen minutes results in better shaped cookies. If the dough contains no butter and only shortening, refrigerating makes no noticeable difference. For the record, the recipe yields about four half sheet pans with six dough balls each. These cookies spread out while baking, so a decent amount of space (about two inches) is needed between the balls.

I then took another large egg and beat it lightly. Using a pastry brush, I brushed egg onto the surface of each dough ball.
[IMG]

After baking for twenty minutes in a 350°F (175°C) oven, I cooled them on a wire rack.
[IMG]

Chinese Almond Cookies (makes 24 cookies)

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour		whisk	mix	form into 1-in. (2.5 cm) balls	press almond onto each ball	refrigerate 15 minutes	brush	bake 250°F (175°C) 20 min.	cool on wire rack
1 tsp. (4.6 g) baking soda
1/2 (3 g) tsp. salt
1/2 cup (60 g) almonds	grind to powder
6 oz. (170 g) butter	cream
6 oz. (170 g) palm oil shortening
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
1 tsp. (5 mL) almond extract
1 large (50 g) egg
1 ounce (30 mL) water
24 almonds
1 large egg						beat lightly

[Sonali]

Looks yummy. Can a oiled aluminum foil be used instead of parchment paper on the baking sheet ?

I would appreciate if you could check out my foodblog & give your feedback. Thanks !

Sonali

[Sonali]

Oops..forgot to list my blog. here it is :

http://spicehut.blogspot.com


-Sonali

[Michael Chu]

[blessedmomma]

will I get acceptable results using a small coffee bean grinder or a hand held blender? You know the small wand blenders?
Thanks, Heather

[Michael Chu]

[Shannon]

These cookies are my mother's favourites and I would like to make a batch and send them to her. It would take about 4 days from making the cookies for them to arrive at her door. Will the cookies still be moist if I put them in a airtight container or vacuum bag?

[nyangelina]

thank you for posting this recipe. I've been looking for this for awhile.

[Michael Chu]

[*morningstar]

In the recipe and on the top of the recipe card, it says to bake at 350, but in the recipe card it says 250. Is this a typo?

[Michael Chu]

re: typo

Yes it was. Fixed!

[Not An Artist]

I made these yesterday and they are delicious!

Only one quibble ~ 6 ounces (butter, shortening) is not 120 grams, it is more like 168 grams.

[Michael Chu]

[Alex]

Must the almonds be blanched to make the almond meal?

[hitchhiker72]

I began reading this site when it just began but forgot about it for a while and only just rediscovered it. It's really gone from strength to strength! Going to try out some of the recipes....

Thank you!