Chinese Almond Cookies
Crumbly, lightly sweet bakery cookies made with lard, butter and toasted almond flour, crowned with a whole almond and brushed with egg for a shiny golden top.
The Woks of Life, the Leung family's Chinese cooking site, says the almond cookies sold in Chinese bakeries were invented by Chinese immigrants in the United States, probably starting in the early 1900s; they are lightly sweet, crunchy and crumbly, with a cracked surface and a shiny egg-washed top, and the family calls lard essential to the traditional version. In China the name points somewhere else: Wikipedia's Chinese almond biscuit (杏仁餅) is a crumbly pastry made with ground mung bean, one of the standard pastries of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, where shops near the Ruins of St. Paul's sell them by the box; Wikipedia says it was originally made without almonds and was named for its almond shape. So America's "Chinese" almond cookie is a Chinese-American creation, and the Macau almond cookie is its cousin, not its parent.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Crumbly, lightly sweet bakery cookies made with lard, butter and toasted almond flour, crowned with a whole almond and brushed with egg for a shiny golden top.
🇩🇪 The original
Europe's holiday cookies came first: Nuremberg's spiced nut Lebkuchen, Scottish shortbread and Tuscan cantucci, recipes that German, Scottish and Italian immigrants carried to America. See the Nuremberg Elisenlebkuchen recipe.
📖 Where is it from?: Mexican Wedding Cookies vs Russian Tea Cakes vs Snowballs →
Why it works the kitchen science
Lard plus butter
Lard makes the crumb short and sandy in a way butter alone does not, and the butter adds flavor and softens the porky note The Woks of Life found in all-lard versions.
Toasted almond flour
Toasting deepens the nutty flavor so the cookie tastes of almond, not just of extract.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Step 2
Toast the almond flour in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until one shade darker, 3 to 4 minutes. Tip it into a bowl to cool.
- Step 3
Whisk the toasted almond flour, sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Step 4
Whisk the egg yolk with the melted lard and almond extract. Add it and the butter to the dry ingredients and mix with your hands or a stiff spatula into a soft dough. If it stays crumbly, add 1 to 2 tbsp water.
- Step 5
Roll the dough into 15 ping-pong-ball pieces, flatten each into a thick disk and set them 2 inches apart on the sheet.
- Step 6
Press an almond into the center of each. Small cracks are fine; push big ones back together. Brush the tops with beaten egg.
- Step 7
Bake 13 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden. Cool completely on the sheet; they crisp as they cool.
Chinese Almond Cookies
Serves 15 (1 cookie each) · 15 cookies · 40 min total
Dry
- 1/2 cup (48 g) almond flour
- 2/3 cup (132 g) granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 cups (150 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Wet
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/4 cup melted lard
- 1 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 5 tbsp (71 g) salted butter, at room temperature
To finish
- 15 whole almonds
- 1 egg, beaten, for brushing
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Toast the almond flour in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until one shade darker, 3 to 4 minutes. Tip it into a bowl to cool.
- Whisk the toasted almond flour, sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Whisk the egg yolk with the melted lard and almond extract. Add it and the butter to the dry ingredients and mix with your hands or a stiff spatula into a soft dough. If it stays crumbly, add 1 to 2 tbsp water.
- Roll the dough into 15 ping-pong-ball pieces, flatten each into a thick disk and set them 2 inches apart on the sheet.
- Press an almond into the center of each. Small cracks are fine; push big ones back together. Brush the tops with beaten egg.
- Bake 13 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden. Cool completely on the sheet; they crisp as they cool.
Adapted from The Woks of Life, "Chinese Almond Cookies" by Sarah Leung (updated March 11, 2025; the original 2018 version is by Judy Leung), as written for 15. Gram weights are ours, from King Arthur's chart. The Woks of Life. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- Measure the flour carefully (spoon and level); this dough is meant to be crumbly and too much flour makes it fall apart.
- The Woks of Life found a yolk-only wash tasted eggy; a whole beaten egg gives shine without it.
- No lard? Our swap: use all butter (3 tbsp more butter in place of the lard); expect a less crumbly cookie.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Almond cookies are a traditional Chinese cookie. Disputed: The Woks of Life says the bakery almond cookie was invented by Chinese immigrants in the US; China's and Macau's "almond cookie" (杏仁餅) is a different mung bean pastry (Wikipedia).
- They must be made with lard. Disputed: The Woks of Life calls lard essential to the traditional texture but uses half lard, half butter; many modern recipes use only butter.
- The almond on top was always there. Disputed: Wikipedia says the Chinese biscuit was originally made without almonds and named for its shape.
- They are lucky coins for Lunar New Year. Folklore: widely said; we found no source for it.
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