Chinese New Year (CNY) is all about merry making, getting together with love ones, and ideally; consuming happy stomach filling new year delicacies. One can never party without snacking on lucky CNY cookies which are believed to bring luck in the new year all through.
Here are 10 must-try CNY cookies to add festive sweetness and blessings to your Lunar New Year:
1. Pineapple Tarts (黄梨酥)
Pineapple tarts are considered as the traditional Chinese New Year cookies and they are so delicious and golden and crumbly. The outer layer is a sweet flaky pastry while inside is filled with chewy pineapple jam. This calls for many blessings in the new year since pineapple shaped and coated in gold. Best served with Chinese tea because they are really soft and have a natural sweet flavor to them.
2. Almond Cookies (杏仁酥饼)
These round cookies are flaky, brittle and nicely almond flavored. Almonds preserve the shape of gold ingot bars and are thus inedible for the hope of material wealth in the upcoming year. I like that the cookies themselves appear like tiny golden ingots as well! These cookies are known by the name prosperity cookies due to its nutty flavor, you can enjoy every bite with a cup of Chinese tea.
3. Walnut Cookies (核桃酥饼)
They are crispy and crumbly traditional walnut cookies with walnuts chips that add a crunchy feel on the cookies. As is in the case of almonds, walnuts symbolize ingots and prosperous goodwill for the new year. For CNY, these nutty cookies are best served with Chinese tea.
4. Peanut Cookies (花生酥饼)
Of course, that has to be during CNY where peanut cookies filled with roasted peanuts are a delight to eat. It melts in the mouth gently yielding soft and crunchy texture along with appealing fried nutty fragrance and taste throughout the cookies. Peanuts are associated with both health and longevity – and what’s better than that for the new year? These healthy cookies are best served together with Chinese tea.
5. Sesame Cookies (芝麻酥饼)
These oval shaped cookies have crispy and flaky texture and these cookies are decorated with white and black sesame seeds. Sesame refers to success, glory, and success. Because of their sweetness, nutty flavor and crispy surface as well as the symbolic significance of the ingredients, they are perfect as a CNY snack. Enjoy them with Chinese tea!
6. Fortune Cookies (新年幸运饼)
In as much as there are many activities that characterize CNY celebration, the moment could not be complete without greeting fortunes in a cookie. These folded cookies have papers slips with good wishes lip ups or lucky numbers on them. Coloring the slab of fortune cookie and reading the fortune slip inside that piece of paper remains to be one of the most important CNY customs, which aims to wish for a better luck on the following year. You can take them during or at the end of your reunion dinner.
7. Almond Crunch Cookies (杏仁脆饼)
These cookies are indiodually hand-rolled, flaky with heaps of slivered almonds giving a wallet of nutty caravan. It is suggested that their shape replicates the old Chinese gold or silver dollars. Indulge yourselves in these super crispy “gold ingot” for lots of CNY luck and auspiciousness here!
8. Cassava Cookies (磨芝麻糕)
Cassava is the main ingredient of these cookies, but as a flour-like preparation obtained by fine grating of the tubers. Made with just sugar and sesame seeds they are sweet and chewy which makes them extremely comforting. Satisfy your cravings for their old school taste with Chinese tea this CNY!
9. Sweet Potato Cookies (红薯酥饼)
These cookies are soft, thick and chewy for which they got a beautiful bright orange color from healthy sweet potato. Sweet potatoes in Chinese culture represent prosperity as well as gold. Having a naturally sweet taste and a beautiful golden hue, both are great for CNY blessing-taking!
10. Green Tea Cookies (绿茶酥饼)
Those who enjoy drinking Chinese tea will surely patronize this fragrant matcha green tea cookies perfect for the CNY feast. With a delicate crumble and a delicate bitter-sweet matcha flavor this is the perfect cookie to accompany hot Chinese tea. Happy CNY with these green tea wonders perfect for welcoming prosperity and calmness in our homes!
Lunar New Year is incomplete without cookies and if you are looking for some cookies for your NY home then do try these yummy CNY cookies. Everyone gets to eat a portion of the delicious cookies while chatting with each other of any topic of the choice. Those sweet, crispy, crumbly, soft texture of these cookies for CNY, with meanings of blessing certainly brings sweetness to your reunion on this New Year!
