Bai nian season is a time of tables teeming with food, prosperous red packets, and our Instagram feeds flooded with OOTDs. Inevitably, it is also the season to dread those jabs of nosey comments from aunties and uncles who make it their annual mission to probe about your personal life.
Give them something to talk about then, but let it be about these unique Chinese New Year snacks that’ll have them lauding about your baking skills.
From bak kwa-studded cookies to an exquisite salted egg yolk pound cake, this list of Chinese New Year recipes are more than your regular classic cookie fare – they’ll definitely get your relatives’ minds off topics on marriage engagements and salary scale.
Table of Contents
1. Nian Gao Cookies
Image credit: Constellation Inspiration
The story behind nian gao, a sticky sweet cake that’s a staple during CNY celebrations, goes as such – the Kitchen God that resides in every Chinese family’s house will carry out a “yearly check-in” on how each family has been doing throughout the year. To avoid the Kitchen God from critiquing too much, the families will offer him a nian gao which will keep his mouth occupied with treacly and gorgeously sweet rice cakes.
So, feed your relatives with some Nian Gao Cookies, and they may just be too much in awe to say anything else.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup (140g) unsalted butter
- ½ cup (126g) brown sugar
- ½ cup (100g) granulated white sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 ¾ cup (220g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- Salt
- 8 small cubes nian gao
Makes 8 large cookies.
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- In a bowl of stand mixer, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated white sugar until all are mixed well together.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract into the batter, and mix again until everything is incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then, add the dry ingredients into the batter, and mix until everything is just combined.
- Divide the cookie dough into equal portions, and roll them into balls. Flatten each ball slightly and place a piece of nian gao in the centre, then lightly pinch the dough around the nian gao to cover them up.
- Place the cookie balls on a baking tray that has been lined with a baking sheet. Top each ball with a sprinkle of salt.
- Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, until their centres are set. Allow the cookies to cool before serving.
Recipe adapted from: Constellation Inspiration
2. Tangerine Tanghulu
Image credit: Teak and Thyme
Sure, you can eat tangerines just as they are, but you could also take a simple step further to sweeten things up. These Tangerine Tanghulus are simple to make but they definitely impress – enticing skewers of plump tangerine slices coated in a crisp candy shell.
Ingredients:
- 3 tangerines or mandarin oranges, peeled and sectioned
- 2 cups + 1 tbsp (300g) granulated white sugar
- ⅔ cup (150g) water
- Skewer sticks
Makes 6 skewers.
Steps:
- Pierce 3 tangerine slices into each skewer stick, and set aside.
- In a small pot, add in the sugar and water, and stir over low heat until the mixture has dissolved.
- Turn up the heat and boil the syrup until it reaches 150ºC, for about 8 to 10 minutes. To get a gauge on the temperature, you can dip a skewer stick into the syrup and then immediately into cold water. If the syrup hardens around the skewer stick and crunches when bit into, it is done.
- Tilt the pot and swirl the tangerine skewer in the syrup to coat.
- Place the skewers on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let cool for 10 minutes until the sugar has hardened.
Recipe adapted from: Teak and Thyme
3. Black Sesame Shortbread
Image credit: NYT Cooking
These Black Sesame Shortbreads are everything that feels like comfort and home – warm, melty, slightly grainy, sweetness countered with the intensely savoury note of toasty, nutty sesame. You can bet that your guests will want to empty a jar of these. goodies.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (80g) icing sugar
- 2 cups (264g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cups (200g) black sesame powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Makes about 24 cookies.
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC.
- To make the black sesame seed powder, add some black sesame into a grinder or food processor and grind till the black sesame turns into powder. Measure out 200g of ground black sesame and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and icing sugar together until combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients – the flour, black sesame powder, and salt – into the butter mixture and gently mix with a spatula until everything is combined.
- Place the cookie dough into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, so that the dough will be easy to work with.
- Roll the dough out and shape the cookies according to your preference. You could use a cookie cutter, or a knife to cut out cookie squares.
- Place the cookies onto a baking tray lined with baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are slightly golden.
- Let cool before serving.
Recipe adapted from: Wendyinkk
4. Cornflakes & Nori Cookies
Image credit: What To Cook Today
A way to make a very CNY snack more CNY is by throwing in some nori – or seaweed – when making some classic cornflakes cookies. These Cornflakes & Nori Cookies have a vanilla butter-based core with a shattering cornflakes coat, threaded all over with lots and lots of seaweed.
Ingredients:
- ⅔ cup (150g) salted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup (80g) icing sugar
- 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (30g) cornstarch
- ⅔ cup (50g) cornflakes
- Nori sheets or shredded seaweed
Makes 30 small cookies.
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- Lightly crush the cornflakes into smaller pieces in a bowl, but not too much so that they turn into powder. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together the salted butter and icing sugar until properly mixed.
- Next, add in the flour, cornstarch, and the seaweed, and gently mix with a spatula just until everything is combined.
- Scoop about a tablespoon of the dough and roll it in the cornflakes pieces so that it is all coated over.
- Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Let cool before serving.
Recipe adapted from: What To Cook Today
5. Salted Egg Yolk Pound Cake
Image credit: Food52
Salted egg yolks aren’t only meant to be in mooncakes and Chinese porridges. The recent years have seen these sunshine-coloured cured yolks being infused as a flavour in all sorts of cuisines and desserts – even Western ones.
A flavour firework of rich umaminess and an aromatic sweetness, this Salted Egg Yolk Pound Cake is far from a monotonous cake. With its buttery edge and contrasting savoury-sweet, it is a CNY dessert that’s as remarkable as the celebration itself.
Ingredients:
- 2 ½ cups (340g) cake flour
- 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- Salt
- 2 cups (400g) granulated white sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 4 salted egg yolks
- 2 cups (454g) unsalted butter, melted
Makes 1 bundt pound cake.
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Grease a huge bundt baking pan.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, whip the sugar, eggs and salted egg yolk for about 10 minutes until the mixture gets thick and glossy, like a pale yellow meringue.
- Then, with the mixer still turned on, slowly stream in the melted butter until well-incorporated.
- Reduce the speed to low and add the cake flour and baking powder in installments into the batter.
- Once everything is added in and all traces of flour are gone, pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Tap the pan against the counter several times to remove any air bubbles.
- Bake for 1 hour and 10 to 20 minutes, or until the cake bounces back when pressed lightly on top. Let it cool slightly before unmolding the cake onto a wire rack to continue cooling completely.
Recipe adapted from: Food52
6. White Rabbit Cupcakes
Image credit: Constellation Inspiration
Our childhood candy – the White Rabbit candy – is undoubtedly a hit among the Asian household. There’s so much about the nostalgic snack to love – its milky-sweet flavour profile, its addictively chewy texture, or its edible rice paper wrapping that blew our minds as kids.
Turn this simple milk candy into White Rabbit Cupcakes, and watch your creations win over hearts this CNY.
Ingredients:
Cupcakes
- ¼ cup (56.7g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons (60g) cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (90g) sour cream
- 4 tablespoons (55g) vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup (162ml) whole milk
White Rabbit buttercream
- 16 pieces White Rabbit candies
- 4 tablespoons (60ml) whole milk
- 1 ⅓ cups (303g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 cups (520g) icing sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Makes 12 cupcakes.
Steps:
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and whip until incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In another bowl, mix together the sour cream, oil, vanilla extract, and milk.
- With the mixture running on low, mix in the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then, slowly stream in the milk mixture. Mix until everything is incorporated.
- Fill the cupcake liners ¾ way full. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the cupcakes are lightly golden brown.
- Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.
Frosting
- In a small pot over medium heat, combine the white rabbit candies with the milk. Keep stirring the mixture until the candies are fully melted. Set aside to cool.
- In a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add in the icing sugar a few spoons at a time, and mix until fully incorporated.
- Then, add in the vanilla extract and the cooled white rabbit candy syrup. Continue to beat the buttercream frosting on high speed until smooth and fluffy, for about 5 minutes.
- Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a piping tip, and frost the cooled vanilla cupcakes.
Recipe adapted from: Constellation Inspiration
7. Nestum Bak Kwa Cookies
Image credit: Baker’s Brew
If bacon can go well with maple, and fried chicken is life-changing when eaten with waffles, then bak kwa in cookies should be a thing. And so we’re thinking Nestum Bak Kwa Cookies.
Hear us out – the smoky salty flavour cuts through the malty sugary flavour of the cookies perfectly, a decadent combo that still balances each other out. Keep an open mind and you may find that this combination is nothing short of magic.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup (120g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓ cup (55g) Nestum cereal
- 4 large squares of bak kwa, cut into smaller pieces
Makes 30 cookies.
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Line a baking tray with a baking sheet.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until properly incorporated. Then, mix in the egg.
- With a spatula, fold in the flour, baking soda, Nestum cereal and bak kwa until a dough is formed.
- Roll out smaller pieces of dough and place them on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown.
Recipe adapted from: Bakeomaniac
8. Pineapple “Tart” Shortbread
Image credit: Buttermilk Pantry
If you aren’t a whiz in the kitchen but you still want to impress your family, this Pineapple “Tart” Shortbread recipe is for you. Instead of the classic buttery pastry that cradles a chunk of pineapple jam, this shortbread has the jam infused into the cookie itself, making it a much easier recipe to work with. Rest assured, all that cloudy meltiness and full-bodied richness of a good CNY pineapple tart is maintained.
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup (100g) salted Golden Churn butter, or any good salted butter brands, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (86g) pineapple paste, homemade or store-bought
- 2 tablespoons (15g) icing sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons (20g) cornstarch
- 1 cup (108g) cake flour
Makes 20 cookies.
Steps:
- In a bowl with a whisk or hand mixer, cream the butter just until it is smooth.
- Sift in the icing sugar, salt and cinnamon, and mix until the batter is fluffy.
- Next, add in the vanilla extract and egg yolk into the batter, and whisk until well-incorporated. Sift in the cornstarch and gently mix in until fully combined.
- Add in the pineapple paste, and cream together just until combined. Then, sift in the cake flour and use a spatula to gently fold the flour in.
- Transfer the dough to a cling wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Once the dough is nice and firm, roll it out to about 6mm thick. Using your desired cookie cutter, cut out pieces of cookies and place them onto a lined baking tray.
- Place the cut-out cookies on the baking tray into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC. After 30 minutes, bake the cookies for 10 to 13 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool before serving or storing.
Recipe adapted from: Buttermilk Pantry
9. Steamed Mandarin Cake
Image credit: My Lovely Recipes via Youtube
If you have way too many mandarin oranges sitting around at home, try this ridiculously simple recipe for Steamed Mandarin Cake. Think something between a traditional tapioca kuih and a jelly, this zesty delight screams CNY. It definitely brings more fun in consuming the mandarin oranges that you may be struggling to finish too.
Ingredients:
- 600ml mandarin orange juice
- ½ cup (120g) granulated white sugar
- ½ cup (80g) corn starch
- 3 tablespoons (20g) tapioca flour
- 1 ½ cups (120g) shredded coconut
- Salt
Makes 1 cake.
Steps:
- Using a juice squeezer, squeeze out mandarin orange halves to get 600ml of juice.
- In a bowl, mix together the mandarin orange juice, sugar, corn starch and tapioca flour until well-combined.
- Strain the mixture into a pot to make sure that there are no lumps.
- Over medium heat, stir the pot of juice mixture continuously until thickened and smooth.
- Once done, pour the mixture into a baking tin or a container and place into the refrigerator for it to cool and firm up.
- Meanwhile, toast or fry the coconut shreds slightly on a dry pan until fragrant.
- When the mandarin orange cake is firmed up and completely cool, unmold it and cut up into equal rectangular pieces.
- Coat the mandarin orange cakes with the toasted shredded coconut and serve.
Recipe adapted from: My Lovely Recipes
10. Crispy Sesame Ribbon Biscuits
Image credit: What To Cook Today
These Crispy Sesame Ribbon Biscuits are cute, fun, easy to make, and quick to vanish. Make sure you make more than a portion of these as your guests will just be popping them into their mouths one after another. They’re that good.
Ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cups (200g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tablespoons (20g) vegetable oil
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated white sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
- 1 egg yolk
- 5 tablespoons (70ml) water
Makes 40 pieces.
Steps:
- In a bowl, add in the flour and oil. Rub the oil into the flour until they form coarse crumbs. This will produce a crispy and flaky biscuit.
- Add in the sugar, salt, and black sesame seeds. Then, add the egg yolk and water, and continue to knead until a dough is formed.
- Cover and let the dough rest for 2 hours. If the dough forms an indentation that disappears slowly when pressed, it is ready.
- Divide the dough into two portions. Keep one covered and work with the other one. Flatten the dough and roll it out as this as possible into a rectangle.
- Use a knife to cut out 1×3 inches of rectangular pieces.
- Stack two rectangular pieces together, fold into half, and make a small slit in the middle with a knife. Unfold the halves and you’ll have a hole in the middle of the rectangles.
- Take a corner of the rectangle and pull it through the hole, and you’ll have a twisted ribbon. Repeat the same for the rest.
- Heat up a pan filled with oil. Insert a skewer into the oil and if there are bubbles around it, the oil is ready. Lower the heat and fry the ribbons in batches until nicely golden brown. Place them on an absorbent paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
- Let the ribbons cool down completely before serving or storing.
Recipe adapted from: What To Cook Today
Unique Chinese New Year snacks recipes
Whether you’re looking for some over-the-top CNY treats to impress the family or simply to challenge yourself, these recipes will be perfect to ring in the Year of the Dragon that’ll be as fun and special as the cookies and desserts themselves.
If you’ve enjoyed reading these recipes, you’ll want to find out more about the origin stories of popular Chinese New Year snacks in Malaysia.
Cover image adapted from: NYT Cooking, Constellation Inspiration, Food52 & Baker’s Brew