Chinese Peanut Cookies

Time really flies and now Chinese New Year is round the corner again. The CNY bakes has to start right now.
I shall start off with this Chinese Peanut Cookie (花生酥) which is a favourite of mine. My aunt from Malaysia gave me this recipe years ago.
This is a very easy to do cookie, everything is manual and no particular tool is needed. However, the taste, fragrant and texture is fantastic. I have added coarsely chopped peanut bits for that extra crunch (the original recipe did not call for this).
This cookie is quite fragile and "song chui". It literally melts in your mouth - you know that gooey feeling all inside your mouth.



Ingredients:
200g ground peanut powder
200g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
100g - 150g coarsely chopped peanut bits (or more)
100g peanut oil or more/corn oil

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 tsp water

Method:
1. Put 200g peanuts in a wok and dry fry over low heat till crunchy. Remove the thin membrane and put into a blender and blend till powder form.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, ground peanut powder, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well combined. Toss in the chopped peanut bits and mix well.
3. Add in 100g peanut oil or more and mix till a piable dough is formed.
4. Shape as you wish. For me, I use a Watson distilled water bottle cap.
5. Apply egg wash.
6. Bake on a lined tray at 165C for 20 minutes or till golden brown.

Notes:
1. Don't add in all the oil in one go. If dough is too dry, you can add more oil. If dough is too wet, you can add more flour.
2. For the shaping, you can do it in the round balls style but I don't like it, so I used a bottle cap instead. Put a piece of glad wrap over the bottle cap and press in enough dough - about 9g for this Watson's cap. Lift up the glad wrap and release the shaped cookie onto the baking tray.
3. Use corn oil if you are a "waist-watcher".
4. Use icing sugar instead of castor sugar to get a finer textured cookie.