Chinese New Year Snacks ....

I'm back!

So. I realise I've been gone for quite a while now, half because of holidays but mainly because of reasons associated with laziness, but let's not worry about that now :)

Well, since it's a little past chinese new year, and I have so much time on my hands right now before uni, I got a chance to try out a couple of Chinese new year snack recipes! We make these fried pastries almost every year but this is really the first time we've come close to success- perhaps because of the recipe or because of experience. In chinese, they're called 角仔, which litterally translates into 'litle horns' because of their shape but are actually pastries filled with a sweet peanutt-y filling.

I'm pretty terrible at pleating the dough though- mine all turn out more ike a child's first attempt at pleating dumplings than anything (the ones in the photos are probably my mum's ) but it's still fun getting my hands all oily and sugary :)

New Year Crispy Triangles (角仔)
(as named by the chinese cookbook I got the recipe from)

640g flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup lard (I replaced with butter)
125g water

320g fried shelled peanuts (I'm not quite sure what that means- I just used plain peanuts)
80g fried white sesame seeds (we used plain white sesame)
240g white sugar
2 Tbs desiccated coconut (I doubled this becuase I like coconut)

1. Grind peanut and mix with sesame, sugar and coconut to form filling
2. Sieve flour onto tabletop and make a well in the middle
3. Add eggs and lard and mix. Gradually pour in water, kneading at the same time until a soft dough is formed
4. Cover with damp cloth and set aside for 30 minutes
5. Roll dough out with a rolling pin and cut rounds with a saucer (we used a cup). Wrap in filling and fold edges in a zigzag pattern.
6. Deep fry on low heat until golden brown and the pastries float to the top (about 8-10 minutes although I'm pretty sure ours didn't take that long.....)