Because of their symbolic meanings, certain dishes are eaten during the Chinese New Year. These lucky foods are served during the 16-day festival season especially New Year’s Eve, which is believed to bring good luck for the coming year.

In this video, School of Wok Founder Jeremy Pang demonstrates how to make Almond Crumble Cookies – a dish symbolising family togetherness in the Chinese culture.

Jeremy Pang’s Almond Crumble Cookies

Almond Crumble Cookies

50g flaked almonds

20-25 red glace cherries

The Cookie Dough

200g butter

200g caster sugar

1 egg

200g plain flour

200g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 small dab of yellow food colouring (optional)

Preparation

Whisk the butter and sugar together to form a uniform ‘sugary paste’. Whisk the eggs in and mix well, either by hand or on a medium speed in a dough mixer with the k-hook attachment. Once the egg has been well combined with the butter and sugar paste, add the vanilla extract, yellow food colouring if using, then sieve both the plain and self-raising flour into the mixing bowl and slowly combine all the ingredients with your hands, or if using the dough mixer, do this on speed 1.

Once well mixed, the crumble topping should resemble a cookie dough. Remove from the mixing bowl, on a floured surface roll out the crumble topping to about 3-4mm thick. Use an 8 - 9cm diameter round cookie cutter to cut the crumble topping into the right sized circles to cover the buns. Use the back of a butter knife to gently make a crisscross# pattern on each crumble topping surface, but make sure not to cut into it completely.

Tip: A little yellow food colouring will help to enhance the changes in colour across the crumble topping, giving you that classic Hong Kong bakery 'Pineapple' effect, should you wish to use it.

Making the Cookies

Roll the almond crumble topping into a long cylinder roughly 4cm in diameter. Then slice the cylinder into 1cm thick rounds. Place all the cookies onto a greaseproof tray or a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, allowing at least a centimetre of space between each cookie. Lightly press 1 red glace cherry on each cookie and then a small scattering of flaked almonds around the centre of each cookie.

Baking