Most crisp Chinese style almond cookie.
Chinese almond cookie is one of the yummy and crunchy Chinese style pastries, usually made for festivals (Chinese New Year). It has been the most popular snack for children in my family for years. Similar cookies include Chinese walnut cookie and butter cookie.
The original recipe is published 4 years ago but I changed the recipe a lot in this year’s new version. In order to make the cookies much crispier, I use almond flour in the dough. Please note, since we add almond flour and relatively a smaller amount of liquid in the dough, there will be cracks on the surface. Cracks indicate the successfully produced crisp texture. If you want to eliminate the cracks on the surface, use less flour and make the dough softer.
Almond flour not only brings the cookie a aroma of almond, but also changes the texture.
Cream butter with egg yolk, sugar and almond extract in a large mixing bowl and then shift salt, cake flour, almond flour and baking soda. Combine all the ingredients together and then knead into a dough. Cover with plastic wrapper and refrigerate for 1 hour (optional in winter).
Preheat the oven to 170 degree C. Divide the dough into 16 similar pieces and then shape each one into a round ball. Slightly flat with fingers (or if you prefer a cuter pattern, you can use forks). Then decorate whole almond in the center. Optionally, brush the egg wash.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes and then let the cookies stay in the oven for another 10 minutes.
Transfer to cooling track until completely cooled. Then package with air-tight container.
- 115 g butter ,softened in room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4 tsp. almond extract
- 120 g cake flour
- 60 g almond flour
- 1 small pinch of salt
- 35 g to 40g sugar
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 16 whole almonds for decoration
- 1 tbsp. egg liquid + 1 tbsp. water
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Cream butter with egg yolk, sugar and almond extract in a large mixing bowl and then shift salt, cake flour, almond flour and baking soda.
-
Combine all the ingredients together and then knead into a dough. Cover with plastic wrapper and refrigerate for 1 hour (optional in winter).
-
Pre-heat oven to 170 degree C.
-
Divide the dough into 16 similar pieces and then shape each one into a round ball. Slightly flat with fingers (or if you prefer a cuter pattern, you can use forks). Then decorate whole almond in the center. Optionally, brush the egg wash.
-
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes and then let the cookies stay in the oven for another 10 minutes. Transfer to cooling track until completely cooled. Then package with air-tight container.
The recipe is firstly published in 2014 and re-publish with new recipe and photo in 2018.
The Nutrition Facts is based on each single cookie.
i love chinese almond cookies. they look great!
Thanks Dina!
please fix your recipe. You do not say when to add the flour. Thanks.
Thanks for catching that. Fixed.
My Chinese friend made something wonderful and crunchy–this looks like it. She doesn’t know much English and her instructions were in Chinese. We figured out everything except one white powder mystery ingredient with Warburtons as the only Roman letter word. It must have been almond paste because the other ingredients were almonds, sugar, flour, eggs, and baking soda.
White powder? Is it pure white or gray white. Can it be almond flour?
There is no mention how many egg liquids to add? Are those egg liquids egg white?
Hi Casters,
One middle size egg should be added to the cookie dough.
You say sugar powder is that confectioners sugar?
Yes, that’s confectioners sugar for the dough.
Sorry, I’m still confused. Egg liquid? Is that egg whites or the whole egg?
Alida, use whole egg for this recipe.
Phew. Only used half though, per recipe.
Hi Elaine, I made these and they are DELICIOUS!
Thanks Don. I am glad it helps for you too. We are preparing for the new year too and this would be a great snack for children.
Hi! Would you by any chance have a link or a suggestion for the other almond cookie recipe? The one that uses almond flour.
Thank you!! 🙂 It’s fine if you find it troublesome!
Hi Kaye,
I am sorry Kaye I do not have a recipe using pure almond flour.
What is low gluten flour?
It is cake flour.
I think it must need more than 1 cup of flour ?
I don’t understand 1/2 middle
egg
Hi Dariela,
I am living in China, thus cannot know the exact size of egg on your side. There are smaller, middle and really large eggs vary from 40g-60g. I should have make the statement clear. Thanks for your feedback.
where can i get cake flour?
Hi Jessica,
Cake flour is low gluten flour. You can try to search it in your local stores.
Use All Purpose flour (plain) mixed with corn flour to a ratio of 3:1 (Nigella Lawson suggests) or take out 2 tablespoons from the cup of flour and replace with corn flour.
You keep saying roll dough into small bowls. Do you mean small balls ?
Hi Cindy,
That’s a typo. Thanks for the correctness. Recipe updated!
Do you have to use cake flour or can you use all purpose flour and do you have the exact measurement for the vanilla or almond extract? Thank you!!!
Do you have to use cake flour or can you use all purpose flour and Is there an exact measurement for the vanilla/almond extract? Thank you!!!
Hi Lissa,
Yes, cake flour is highly recommended but you can use all purpose flour as a substitute. I usually use 1/4 teaspoon extract.
Rebondir
J’ai vu que vous avez la recette des cookies aux amandes mais celui que je recherche c.est celui
Des allons cookies macau. Est ce que vous croyez que je peux utiliser votre recette pour en faire
Est ce que vous pourrez me dire où je pourrais trouver cette recette. J’adore ces biscuits la
Merci
Daniele
Hi, im doing a food project for my Chinese class and I have to write the recipe in Chinese could possibly translate it into Chinese simplified characters with pinying if you don’t mind thanks.
Slightly lower your oven temperature can help to avoid cracks.
Hi Elaine, can I replace sugar powder with caster sugar or brown sugar? why do you use sugar powder?
Sure, caster sugar can be a good substitute. Brown sugar works fine too. The reason why I use sugar powder is because it cooperate better with a denser dough.
Hi Elaine, thank you for the recipe.
I tried to make it, but it was so dry that it was still completely powder after I added all the ingredients. Are you sure that the amounts of flour and almond flour are correct? Other recipes online use about half of this amount of flour for a similar amount of butter.
Mariko,
Sorry, I have halved the ingredients during this batch and made a wrong calculation. I have already updated the recipe with the correct ingredient.
Hi Elaine,
I thought of making this recipe today. Could you please confirm if it requires only one egg yolk or one whole egg for the dough. Thanks!
Nina,
Only one egg yolk is needed.
Elaine
I forgot to mention that I couldn’t see where in your recipe to add the egg yolk for making the dough. So I beat in the egg yolk after creaming the butter and sugar.
And the remaining egg white was used to glaze the cookies later before baking.☺️
Egg yolk is creamed with butter and sugar in my recipe. But it is ok to add it in only stage of making the dough.
These almond cookies look just like the one my grandma used to make. I’m totally gonna give them a try!
Thank you, Elaine! I lived in Vancouver’s Chinatown after I left school and there was a little Chinese bakery where I bought crispy almond cookies. They were totally unlike North American almonds cookies. I loved them! Your cookies look very much like those I bought.
Friends are having a large farewell get-together and I was asked if I’d bring some finger foods, preferably Chinese since friends know I cook a lot of Asian food. I’m very hopeful these will taste like my beloved almond cookies (that I haven’t had in many decades as sadly, the tiny bakery is long gone).
is it a must refrigerate the dough? although its not winter time.
Although in winter time, I still recommend refrigerating it because it becomes quite soft after kneading.
Do you have this recipe in imperial measurement? Flour in cups and butter in tablespoon or cup?
Stephen,
I will write up a post helping readers converting grams to cups soon. Keep returning.
According to Google and my math,
115g butter = 1/2 cup
120g cake flour = 1 cup
60g almond flour = 0.6 cup which would be a little less than 2/3
35 to 40g of sugar would be 3 tablespoons
Have you tried making these with 1/2 butter and 1/2 lard?
It’s a bit confusing reading the questions that I presume are about the old recipe.
e.g. No longer using powdered sugar but regular cane sugar?
Thanks Miranda for your kindness of proving me the measurement. I will update this as a reference.
Yes, I have updated the recipe and there are some differences between the two versions.
By the way, I have not tried with lard version yet. Batter seems to be more aromatic.
Thank you for this lovely recipe. I would appreciate clarification regarding the baking time. The directions state “bake for 18-20 minutes and then let the cookies stay in the oven….”.
Is it safe to assume that after 20 minutes of baking the oven is then turned off and the cookies remain in the oven for another10 minutes?
Thank you for your response.
Yes,Meredith. After 20 minutes baking, turn off the oven and let the cookie stay for another 10 minutes.
I was wondering if there was a recipe using Tbs. instead of grams. Also F instead of 170 c. Thanks very much If not then I’ll google the conversions. Sincerely Pam Nowell.
Pam,
I will try to provide both measurement in further recipes. Thanks so much for your suggestion.
Hi
If I was to obtain a non cracked surface, how much flour should be used?
I would suggest using 100g flour.
I have been looking for this recipe for a Long time. I always love eating this cookie sold in biscuit shops in the market as a tea time snack
The white powder in question was probably baking soda – 1/2 teaspoon would work, contributes to crispiness. also maybe a pinch of salt. Thanx for this recipe – can’t wait to try it. Also, using 100% almond flour would not work at all
I’ve been following this blog for a long time- I use this site for all my Chinese cooking and baking recipes since they are authentic, well explained, and my family is from Sichuan. I made these yesterday and my family could not believe I had made them! They said they tasted store bought and were asking how I could find an authentic Chinese recipe haha. Thanks so much and please keep sharing new recipes!
This is an amazing comment, Mary. I post real authentic Chinese recipes and also get lots of complains about now well customized. Your comment is a great encouragement.
Hi, I made these cookies last year and they turned out so so well. This year when I made them the dough was too soft and every batch of cookies splooshed out while baking. Any idea about what could have happened? Thanks very much, I loved these cookies when they came out right.
The flour has different liquid content. You can try to add more butter to adjust the softness of the dough. The dough should be quite smooth after kneading.
What is 60g almond flour is what in cup?
129g cake flour is what in a cup?
35-40g sugar = ??
I highly recommend using a scale to measure the ingredients. I am not sure about the volume measurements.