{"id":2963,"date":"2024-02-28T10:54:06","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T15:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/?p=2963"},"modified":"2024-02-28T11:54:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T16:54:41","slug":"chinese-restaurant-almond-cookies-now-more-than-a-century-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/28\/chinese-restaurant-almond-cookies-now-more-than-a-century-old\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINESE RESTAURANT ALMOND COOKIES, Now More Than A Century Old"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You may have noticed that many Chinese restaurants in the U.S. have an out of place dessert tucked away on the menu: a peculiarly tender almond cookie. Research (a\/k\/a<\/em> the 2020 Nom Wah Cookbook<\/a>) shows an interesting history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click Here For The Recipe Without The Discussion<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oldest Chinese restaurant in New York, Nom Wah Tea Parlor<\/span>, began in 1920 as a bakery focused on standard American fare like cakes, tarts, and of course cookies. These Almond Cookies were a popular creation of the Chinese immigrant owners. Matters changed because that little bakery had a sideline operation selling tea and various traditional savory snacks from Hong Kong; small plates that sparked the NYC love affair with Dim Sum. The sideline restaurant business swallowed up the bakery, and the rest is history. But this particular cookie was too popular to die! It may have stood out like an American sore thumb against all that traditional fare, but the customers insisted. They wanted all those little dumplings, noodle dishes, skewers, soups, and meats most of all… but they wanted Almond Cookies too. It survived every challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Your customers insist!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Other restaurants ran into the same issue when they began to copy the Nom Wah success story. \u2018In the know\u2019 customers simply wouldn’t go if a Dim Sum restaurant wasn’t [ahem]<\/em> authentic enough to include Chinese Almond Cookies on the menu. Never mind that the recipe had no Asian roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cookie itself is a simple shortbread that uses lard instead of butter, a lot of almond extract, and an exceptional number of egg yolks. The proportions are pretty standard beyond that. It\u2019s the history, texture, and flavor that make this cookie such a different, delightful, and (to certain Pavelle family females) indispensable treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Melted” Means Melted<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate, a long time aficionado of almond cookies, handled the testing on this one. It’s a very old and very well established recipe, so she only ran into two challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, a certain husband of hers who shall remain nameless, blameless, and in all ways sacrosanct, wrote “lard at room temperature” in the first version instead “melted lard cooled to room temperature.” This made the dough extremely stiff and hard to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider yourself warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE FROM KATE: Now that I have tried the melted method, the dough seems less \u201cshort\u201d and easier to handle. Before, I had to add a teaspoon of water, thinking that our flour became extra dry over the winter. Surprisingly, the end product has the same, identical texture! The only catch: I found it best to let the lard melt \u00be of the way, and then take it off the heat as I prepared the other ingredients. It finished melting in the residual heat, and then cooled just enough to start solidifying again when I was ready to use it. The food processor will handle the solid bits – just make sure you don\u2019t inadvertently cook the egg yolks that are already waiting! (Barely melted lard is warm to touch, but not hot.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cookie forming goes like this: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Divide dough in half. <\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Divide each half into 18 portions (I like to square up the dough using my bench scraper, then I eyeball the sections.) <\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Roll each portion into a ball in your hands, press the almond into the center, and then squish lightly. Don\u2019t worry about fixing small cracks, it will bake up nicely and the texture, highlighted by the yellow egg wash, is part of cookie\u2019s appeal.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    To Soda Or Not To Soda, That Is The Question<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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    \"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    We decided to write this up as a doubled version of the recipe in the Nom Wah Cookbook<\/span>. Those authors called for 1 tsp. each of baking soda and powder; i.e.<\/em> 2 tsp. each for our version. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Kate tasted distinct baking soda notes in that formula, though Scott (who is much less sensitive to bitter flavors) was willing to give it a pass. So we tried a second version, with two teaspoons of cream of tartar to react with the baking soda byproduct<\/a>. Those cookies still tasted a bit soapy to her extra sensitive palate, and were a bit too puffy for Scott – a fact which proved she was correct in tasting unreacted baking soda still in the dough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Do you know that story about the recipe testers who met up with Goldilocks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Four teaspoons of baking powder with no soda would have eliminated the soapiness for sure, but now we had to deal with the unwanted extra rise. And so we settled 3 tsp. of baking powder. Except… A certain angelic, blameless, and nameless husband pointed out that almond extract originally came from purifying bitter<\/em> almonds to remove the cyanide. So maybe that baking soda flavor was actually a feature instead of a flaw? Was it possible that a certain recipe tester was being too sensitive? [NOTE TO SELF: Married men should know better than to use the words “too” and “[you-know-what]” in close proximity. Thank goodness the nameless and blameless husband at issue would never, ever make such a rookie mistake.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    NOTE FROM KATE: Scott may be onto something with that touch of bitter almonds. The batch below (3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda) leavened about the same (the cookies puff up and deflate a bit with cooling.) A side-by-side taste test revealed that the \u201csoapier\u201d cookie is more authentic! It has that certain something. I like it toned down a bit, but not all the way. But now you have options and see how \u201csoapy\u201d a cookie you prefer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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    \"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    Suffice it to say that we leave things up to you. It’s a matter of taste. Do you want the bitter edge? Or do you find it revolting enough to point fingers at your entirely innocent spouse, who only wrote down what the original authors required? Almond, or bitter almond? Tradition, or improved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There’s really no way to lose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Chinese immigrants in America, from a cookie’s point of view<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26,35,4,43,8],"tags":[405,404,408,391,402,403,406,407,392],"class_list":["post-2963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americana-cookies","category-butter-cookies","category-dairy-free","category-drop-cookies","category-nut-cookies","tag-almond-cookies","tag-chinese","tag-immigrant-cookies","tag-lard","tag-nom-wah","tag-nom-wah-tea-parlor","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurant-cookies","tag-shortening"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Almond-Cookies-in-steamer-closeup-with-chopsticks-pretty-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2963"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2995,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions\/2995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritagecookies.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}