Glutinous Rice Peanut Puff / Lor Mai Kok Chai

糯米角仔/炸米饺

I learnt to make this cantonese sweet treat from my late mother in law. It is a must have in our family for Chinese New Year. Unlike the traditional peanut puffs which are made using plain flour, this is made using glutinous rice flour and wheat flour. They are super crispy and you can't stop at one!

Ingredients

Dough

300g glutinous rice flour

75g wheat starch 澄面粉

25g sugar

1/2 tsp salt

75g pork lard (semi solid, softened, room temperature. NOT liquid lard)

270ml boiling water (=244g)

1 spoonful of love

Filling

150g coarsely chopped/grounded roasted peanuts 

30g lightly toasted white sesame seeds

50g sugar

1 pinch of salt

Method

1. Sieve the glutinous flour and wheat starch into a mixing bowl and mix in salt. Add the pork lard and use a dough scrapper to cut it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse sand.

2. Boil the water in a covered pot to minimise steam/evaporation loss. Add the boiling water into the mixing bowl, and use chopsticks to mix in quickly at the same time. Then use hand to  knead until you get a smooth dough. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and rest the dough for 30 minutes. 

3. Mix the ingredients for the filling and set aside.

4. Remove some dough and keep the rest covered under damp cloth. Roll the dough flat to about 2mm thickness and use a round cookie cutter to cut the dough. My cookie cutter size is 4.5cm in diameter. 

5. Take one of the round dough, put half to one teaspoon (depends on the size of your cutter) of peanut filling in the center of the dough. Gently seal and pleat the edges of the dough into mini "curry puff" shapes. Use a plastic sheet/damp cloth to cover the puffs until all the dough has been shaped. 

6. Gently place the puffs into the oil one by one to avoid them sticking to one another. Fry the puffs in medium-low heat until light brown.  Then, increase heat to medium and fry for a few seconds until the puffs are golden brown. Transfer the puffs to wire rack to drip excess oil. Cool them completely before storing them in air tight containers.

7. For the dough scraps, instead of re-rolling them to make peanut puffs, you can cut into strips and fry them. These can be used in place of the crispy crackers for the CNY yusheng / lo-hei dish.