Malaysian Chinese Walnut Cookies are a remarkably delicious crunchy cookie that was created by the Cantonese at Ipoh, Perak near north Malaysia. It used to be a popular cookie made for a wedding and of course for the Chinese New Year celebration too. I use vegan butter to turn it into a healthier recipe.
Makes: 16 Biscuits Preparation Time: 15 Minutes Cooking Time: 25-30 minutes
Course: Chinese New Year, Desserts
Cuisine: Chinese, Cantonese, Malaysian
Author: Healthy Asian Cuisine
Ingredients
- 140g/1 cup self-raising flour
- 60g/1/2 cup organic whole-meal flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 73g/1/3 cup light brown sugar, or date sugar
- 50g/½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
- 130g/4.5oz vegan butter
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon soya milk
Method
Step 1 Making and Baking the Walnut Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 325° F (160°C).
- In a small bowl mix maple syrup and soya milk together, making sure that maple syrup is fully diluted. Set aside to use it as an vegan egg wash later.
- Place the walnuts onto a big chopping board. Then using a chef knife, chop the nuts into small pieces.
- Cut the vegan butter into 1cm/1/2″ squares then set them aside.
- Place and combine the self-raising flour, whole-meal flour, baking soda, salt and light brown sugar into a flour sifter or a colander. Sift these dry ingredients through the flour sifter into a large bowl. Thereafter, add the coarsely chopped walnuts into the bowl then mix the nuts completely with all other dry ingredients.
- Finally, mix the butter into the dry ingredients using a big fork then by using your hand, knead everything together until it forms a smooth dough.
- Take about 1 tablespoon of dough or weigh the dough on a scale to determine the portion size, you need about (25g) of dough to form a cookie. Roll the dough with your hands into a dough ball. Repeat the process to make the entire cookies ball and place them onto the lined baking sheet, space out the dough balls about 5-6cm/2-3inches apart from each other.
- Use a big spoon to flatten the cookies dough balls in the baking tray, and then apply the vegan egg wash onto them with a brush. Note: it is much easier to first wet the back of the spoon with the vegan egg wash for preventing the dough from sticking on the spoon.
- Bake in the oven for approximately 25 to 30 minutes until the cookies turn golden brown.
- Transfer the baking tray with cooked cookies onto your kitchen counter and let the cookies cool for at least 5 minutes. When the cookies are cooled enough to be handled, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool. Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.
| Notes: 1. If you do not have organic whole-meal flour, just use normal whole-meal flour or self-raising flour. 2. For non-vegan, feel free to use honey instead of maple syrup. 3. For milk, almond or other nut milk are equivalent good as soya milk. |
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