Ingredients (makes 20 to 21 cookies)
100g veg oil (I ended up needing another tsp)
1 egg + 1 for egg wash
70g sugar
230g cake flour
⅛ tsp baking soda (will omit next time, see Recipe Feedback)
½ tsp baking powder
1g salt
80g walnut, chopped
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
Method
1. In a bowl, whisk the egg, sugar, and veg oil until paler in colour.
2. Sift the flours together.
3. Add to dry to the wet gradually and fold in. (at this point, I needed another tsp of oil as there was still a lot of dry flour)
4. Add in the walnuts and fold in. This forms into a nice dough that should collect up all the loose walnut pieces. It therefore makes sense to chop the walnuts rather finely but not too fine that there isn't any bite.
5. Form balls of 25 to 30g each. Roll between the palms into a ball. Transfer each ball onto a parchment covered baking tray and leave sufficient space between them to spread slightly. There isn't a lot of spreading. I need 2 trays.
6. Flatten each biscuit with the palm of your hand. Leave the edges ragged (traditional look) or smoothen them, the choice is yours.
7. Beat the egg for egg wash and brush each biscuit.
8. Top with black sesame seeds and press them into the batter. I even used the remaining egg to really adhere the seeds to the biscuit.
9. Bake at 180 deg C for 19 to 20 minutes. I swapped the trays from the top and bottom shelves halfway.
10. Leave to rest on the tray for up to 5 minutes then dislodge with a spatula. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.
Recipe feedback
- I'm not sure I will add the baking soda again because the taste was quite evident. There wasn't any acid in the recipe so I don't see how it's going to react.
- The biscuit is shatteringly crispy out of the oven! It doesn't taste exactly like the Chinese walnut cookies that I'm used to so maybe this alternative recipe that uses butter may help
- https://www.rotinrice.com/hup-toh-soh-chinese-walnut-biscuits/
