Peanut Puffs (Kok zai) 角仔

This is a traditional Cantonese snack that is served during Chinese New Year season. These mini puffs are about 3cm in length, filled with finely chopped peanuts and sugar. It is an almost irresistible treat during Chinese New Year visitations. The making process is very time consuming as each little puff requires quite a bit of TLC.

There are 2 parts to making the puff, the first is the dough for the pastry and the second, the peanut puff filling.

For the Pastry Dough

• 600gm High Ratio Flour/Bread flour. You can use normal plain flour but the high ratio flour gives the pastry a lighter texture.
• 120gm Melted Butter/ Peanut Oil. Traditionally the recipe uses pork lard but I have replaced it with butter or oil for a healthier recipe.
• 2 Eggs. Beat up the yoke and the white properly.
• 120gm Cold Water

1. Gradually mix in the cooled melted butter/ oil to the flour. You can use your fingers to rub in.
2. Gradually add in the beaten eggs to the mixture of butter and flour. Kneading the mixture as you add so that it is mixed properly.
3. Add cold water to the mixture, little by little, to give you time to knead the mixture into a dough. The amount of water can vary as due to climate conditions and the variant of ingredients used. So once the mixture becomes a dough, without being overly sticky or crumbly, it is done.
4. Use a clean damp cloth to wrap the dough up and leave the dough to rest for at least 30min. The damp cloth keeps the dough moist so that it doesn’t dry up.

For the Filling

• 300gm Roasted skinless Peanuts – finely chopped. You can use a grinder to do this as chopping the nuts can be very time consuming
• 80gm Roasted White Sesame Seed. To roast this yourself, place the white sesame seed onto a hot frying pan over low fire. No oil is needed. Roast it until you smell the fragrance of the sesame seed or when it turned a little yellow from the heat.
• 200gm Fine white sugar. You can vary this according to your own taste preference of sweetness.

Mix all the filling ingredients together evenly.

You will need a rolling pin and a cookie cutter of about 3-4cm in diameter to start making the puffs.

1. Roll out a small handful of dough using the rolling pin. You should sprinkle some flour on the surfaces that are in contact with the dough to avoid it from sticky to them. The dough should be thin, almost translucent, allowing just a little bit of light passing through it.
2. Use the cookie cutter to cut out 3-4cm circles on the rolled-out dough.
3. Pick up a cut-out dough and fold it in half, only pressing on the edges halfway through from one of the tips to the middle.
4. Use a small teaspoon, scoop of the filling and fill up the dough in your hand and press in the remaining edge to seal the full puff. If the edges are not sealing properly, you can dab some water to help it stick. Try not to get the filling to the edge as it becomes a barrier for puff to seal up.
5. After sealing the puff, using your thumb and index finger, starting from one end of the puff’s edge, press the edge and fold it in, and start this again at about mid way of the fold made previously.
6. It will be good to cover the puffs with a damp cloth as they can dry up very quickly if left exposed.
7. Heat up the oil to get ready for deep-frying. Try to make sure that there are no holes in the puffs as once the filling is exposed to oil, they flow out into the oil leaving them empty with only the dough. Fry till golden brown.