peanut butter puffs

One of the popular snacks eaten during Chinese New Year is similar to a miniature version of the peanut butter puffs that you see in this post. I do not have the recipe for "kok chye" (and hence I do not know whether the dough for "kok chye" is similar to my peanut butter puffs) but I would imagine that as the "kok chye" is really tiny, there is a lot of labour that goes into the making of a "kok chye".

I have not mastered the skill of pleating the edges of the dough and for the moment, I use the teeth of a fork to press down on the edges of the dough to seal them and to give the design that you see in the photographs in this post.

INGREDIENTS (pastry)

100g rice flour

500g plain flour

100g tapioca flour

200g butter (cold)

250g water

egg wash (comprising lightly beaten egg mixed with a little water)

INGREDIENTS (filling)

chunky peanut butter

METHOD

1. Sift the rice flour, plain flour and tapioca flour in a bowl. Add the cold butter to the flour and cut the butter into smaller pieces using a butter knife. Using your finger tips, rub the butter with the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add the water and knead into a dough. Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave the dough to rest for 20 minutes.

2. Roll out the dough on a floured board into 1/2 cm thick and cut into 3" round shape using a cookie cutter. Further roll out each cut dough to flatten it slightly.

3. Place 1 tbsp of chunky peanut butter in the middle of each cut dough. Wet the edges with a little water and fold the dough into half. Press down on the edges using the teeth of a fork to seal the edges.

4. Place the peanut butter puffs on a baking tray that is lined with baking paper. Brush the exposed part of the puff with the egg wash and bake in an oven preheated to 220 degrees celsius for 10 minutes. Turn the peanut butter puff over, brush it with egg wash and bake for another 10 minutes at 220 degrees celsius.

5. Let the peanut butter puffs cool thoroughly before storing them in an air-tight container.