You turn the carved mold face-down, knock it flat against the table, and lift it. A pale disc with a crisp pattern sits on the counter, smelling of ground almonds and almond extract, so fragile it looks like it might fall back into crumbs. In the oven it sets into a cookie that is dry, sandy and short, and it breaks apart on the tongue rather than chewing. Macao almond cookies (澳門杏仁餅) are one of the city's traditional and best-loved sweets. They are so dry that you eat them with a drink in hand, and a plain cup of tea is the natural partner.
A Dry, Crumbly Cookie Made for a Cup of Tea
The whole character of the cookie comes from what it leaves out. There is no egg, no wheat flour and no butter. Ground almonds and icing sugar make up most of the body. Mung bean flour holds it together, and lard binds it just enough to keep the stamped shape. The result is closer to a pressed sweet powder than to a biscuit. That is why it crumbles so readily, and why it asks for a drink alongside.
In Macao, almond cookies are a bakery trade as much as a home sweet. Some long-running shops still pack the mixture into molds by hand and bake over charcoal, setting the cookies out on bamboo trays. Accounts of what goes into those bakery cookies differ from one telling to the next. One describes American almonds, mung bean flour, sugar, vegetable oil and peanut butter. Another describes whole almonds, vegetable oil, white sugar and mung bean flour, with a version that hides a pork filling inside. Those are shop recipes built around charcoal and a bakery's own methods. The cookie here is a home kitchen batch: lard, an electric or gas oven, and one carved mold on the counter.
Where the cookie first began is not settled, and each old shop tells its own story. What everyone agrees on is the shape and the eating: small rounds stamped with a pattern, sold in stacks, bought by visitors to carry home and eaten by locals with tea. For more of the city's food, see the Macau country page.
餅 covers a wide family of cakes and biscuits in Chinese, and 杏仁 means almond. On Chinese shop shelves, the same characters can also appear on apricot kernels and on sweetened almond-drink powder. This cookie uses ordinary eating almonds.
Ingredients
The batch makes about 30 cookies, depending on the size of your mold. Every dry ingredient is given by weight, so use a kitchen scale.
Mung bean flour, ground almonds and icing sugar pack very differently in a cup. The cookie only holds together and crumbles correctly when the three are in balance, so weigh them every time.
This recipe contains tree nuts (almonds) and pork fat (lard). Bakery almond cookies bought in Macao can also contain peanut butter or a pork filling, so check the label before buying them for someone with an allergy or dietary rule.
Equipment
- Kitchen scale and measuring spoons
- Food processor
- Mixing bowl and whisk
- Cutting board and small knife
- Carved cookie mold (wooden molds are traditional)
- Clean brush kept for food use, for dusting the mold
- Baking tray and baking parchment
- Wire cooling rack
- Oven
Buying the Almonds, Flour and Lard
Mung bean flour is the item to hunt for. Look in Chinese and other Asian grocers or online for a bag sold as food and labeled mung bean flour (綠豆粉). Mung bean starch sits on the same shelves and looks just as white, but it is a different product and will not give the same texture. Buy only food-grade flour. Store-bought mung bean flour goes into the bowl straight from the bag.
The almonds are ordinary edible sweet almonds, whole and unsalted, from any supermarket. Use them as you bought them, raw or roasted. Apricot kernels, bitter almonds and sweetened almond-drink powder are separate products, often sold under the same Chinese characters. They do not belong here. Pre-ground almond flour also changes the grind, because the almonds should be broken down together with the sugar.
Lard comes from a butcher or the fat section of a supermarket. Bakeries in Macao use vegetable oil in their own recipes, but this batch is built around lard. Keep lard for the shape and short bite. The icing sugar is ordinary powdered sugar. Keep a little extra in a separate bowl for the mold.
Method
Line the tray and heat the oven first. After that, the mixture comes together in one bowl in a few minutes. Most of your time goes into the molding, one cookie at a time, so set up a clean, sturdy patch of table for tapping. The baking itself is a short stretch at the oven, followed by a rest inside it with the heat off and a full cooling on the rack.
Pour in all the almond extract before any water touches the crumbs. Then add water in small splashes, and stop at the first pinch that holds when squeezed. Too much water makes a pasty mixture that clings to the mold.
After the first flat tap, lift the mold and look before you do anything else. If the cookie is already sliding, let it come. Only a cookie that has not moved after about 10 seconds gets the quick tap on the mold's end.
- These cookies bake with the oven door open a little. Do this only in an oven whose manual allows running with the door open, never in a microwave-combination mode, and keep the gap small. Heat escaping through the gap can damage the cabinets and furniture in front of the oven.
- Never hold the door with a utensil, towel or wedge, and never cook with anything caught in the door or bypass a door switch.
- Stay with the oven the whole time the door is open, and keep children and pets clear of the oven front.
When It Goes Wrong
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A squeezed pinch crumbles straight back into sand | Not enough water yet | Add another small splash, toss, and test again until it holds |
| The mixture feels pasty and clings to the mold | Too much water went in at once | Add water in smaller amounts next batch and stop at the first pinch that holds |
| The pattern has gaps or soft, rounded edges | The crumbs were not worked into the carved corners or not pressed hard enough | Break the cookie up, repack the corners first, then press firmly before tapping |
| The cookie stays in the mold after the flat tap | The cookie needs more time or a sharper knock | Wait if it is moving; after about 10 seconds without movement, tap the tilted end once |
| The cookie comes out torn or the pattern sticks | The mold was dusted unevenly | Brush icing sugar thinly into every line, then repack and remold the broken cookie |
Serving and Roasted-Almond Variation
At the table
These are cookies for a cup of something. Put a plate out with tea in the afternoon, or wrap a few in paper for a visitor, the way boxes of almond cookies leave Macao in travelers' bags. Because they are so dry, the drink matters as much as the cookie. A bite dissolves into sweet almond crumbs with a sip, and they fall apart in the mouth rather than in the fingers.
Roasted almonds
Roasting the whole almonds before grinding them gives a deeper, toastier almond flavor. Let them cool completely, then grind them with the icing sugar exactly as in step 2. Everything else stays the same. The finished cookie has a warmer taste and a slightly darker crumb.
Frequently asked questions
Does the lard need to be cold?
No particular temperature is needed. Cut it into small cubes and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Small pieces disappear into the flour quickly whatever their temperature.
Do I have to toast store-bought mung bean flour first?
No. Food-grade mung bean flour from the shop goes into the bowl straight from the bag. Toasting belongs only to recipes that start with whole beans and mill them at home.
What size mold should I use?
Any carved cookie mold works. Wooden ones are traditional, and the size of the mold sets how many cookies you get, about 30 from this batch. Smaller cookies pack and release more easily on a first try. Larger ones need firmer pressing to hold the pattern.
