Coming back to Australia really makes me miss home. So lately, I’ve been on a quest to recreate the goodies that we have during Chinese New Year. My uncle passed me his homemade almond cookies recipe and it was absolutely delicious – All my Singaporean friends loved it.

The thing about almond cookies is that it has to be crumbly in the inside. It’s not a soft cookie – in fact it is a hard crumbly cookie. The best part about this cookie is that it does not require any equipment. All you need is a sieve and mixing bowl so less washing to do. But it does require some strength in sieving the icing sugar.

This cookie unlike other kinds of cookies does not require resting in the refrigerator. Once the dough is made, roll out the cookies straight away and pop it into the oven.

Almond cookies

Preparation time: 15 min
Baking time: 10-15 min or when the cookies turn brown

Nutrition per cookie (one batch makes 50) 

Ingredients for the cookies

1. 250g plain flour
2. 120g almond meal
3. 100g icing sugar
4. 200ml peanut oil
5. 1 tsp vanilla essence
6. 2 tsp bicarbonate soda
7. 1 tsp baking powder
8. 0.25 tsp salt
9. 2 tbsp of soy milk for brushing
10. 100g almond sticks

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (convectional oven)
2. Sieve flour, icing sugar and baking powder into a mixing bowl
3. Add almond meal, salt and vanilla essence. Mix well
4. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and add 200ml of peanut oil and knead to form a dough
5. If dough is too dry, add in more oil, 1 tbsp at a time, till mixture feels dry (but not crumbly) to touch
6. Take a small amount of dough and roll into a small round ball. Place onto the prepared tray. Fill up the tray, placing the round dough about 1 cm apart. 8. Brush the soy milk evenly over the dough.
7. Pierce a hole in the centre of the round dough and put in the almond stick.
8. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes until slightly golden. Do not over bake as the cookie will turn bitter.

There you have it! This is what I call home away from home!