Chinese Walnut Cookies: Hup Toh Soh
This recipe for Chinese walnut cookies will have you coming back to it again and again. The biscuits are deliciously crisp on the outside and slightly chewy in the middle. They contain buckwheat flour, wholemeal spelt and coconut oil, so they’re a bit healthier than your average cookie recipe.
I’d not heard of The Dumpling Sisters until their newly published book passed my way recently. This endearing name for Amy and Julie Zhang highlights their passion for dumplings.
It’s a lovely book with recipes for easy homemade Chinese food, but it’s heavily meat orientated, so not really one for me. However, there were a couple of baking recipes in the back which drew my attention and their sweet and salty walnut cookies were one of them.
Chinese New Year
The cookies are easy to make and sooooo moreish. A speciality of Chinese New Year, these hup toh soh are supposed to resemble a brain and thus boost mental capacity. Any excuse to eat a few more. They are crisp on the outside, soft and chewy in the middle with crunchy bits of walnut to give a bit of bite as well as flavour.
They may not be the prettiest biscuits in the tin, but they tasted so good, I made a second batch soon after finishing the first.
Hup Toh Soh or Chinese Walnut Cookies
Unusually, the recipe for hup toh soh contains cornflour as well as a mixture of butter and lard and it uses granulated sugar rather than caster. Of course, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly either time. I made the first batch of Chinese walnut cookies with half wholemeal flour and coconut oil instead of lard.
The second batch I made the same way, except I substituted buckwheat flour for the cornflour to make them a little bit healthier. The buckwheat batch were, surprisingly, crisper and lighter than their predecessors, but were equally as delicious. The good thing about all of them is that they are quite small, so I feel justified in having two rather than one with my cup of tea.
Other Nut Biscuits and Cookies You Might Like
- Chocolate chip Brazil nut cookies from Tin and Thyme
- Finnish shortbread from Fab Food 4 All
- Chocolate hazelnut crackles from Tin and Thyme
- Fruity coconut Florentines from Baking Queen 74
- Chocolate hazelnut orange biscotti from Tin and Thyme
- Peanut butter cookies from Nadia’s Healthy Kitchen
- Chocolate topped coconut biscuits from Munchies and Munchkins
If you’re interested in even more cookie recipes, you’ll find plenty in my biscuit category. Go on, take a look.
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Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these Chinese walnut cookies, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Chinese Walnut Cookies. PIN IT.
Chinese Walnut Cookies – The Recipe
Chinese Walnut Biscuits
Ingredients
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 75 g coconut oil
- 190 g flour (half wholemeal, half white)
- 65 g buckwheat flour
- ¼ tsp sea or rock salt (I used Himalayan pink rock salt)
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 110 golden granulated sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg beaten
- 30 g walnuts finely chopped
Instructions
- Cream butter and coconut together until well combined. Add the sugar and cream until light and fluffy.75 g unsalted butter, 75 g coconut oil, 110 golden granulated sugar
- Beat in the vanilla extract and just over half of the egg, reserving the rest for the egg wash.½ tsp vanilla extract, 1 egg
- Sift in the dry ingredients and stir along with the walnuts until a ball of soft dough is formed.190 g flour, 65 g buckwheat flour, ¼ tsp sea or rock salt, ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), 30 g walnuts
- Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture between your hands to form balls and place a little apart on a large lined baking tray.
- Press finger or thumb into the middle to flatten and indent them slightly.
- Brush all over with the remaining egg.
- Bake at 170℃ (325℉, Gas 3) for about 20 minutes or until golden.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sending these gorgeous little Chinese walnut biscuits off to Bake of the Week at Casa Castello. In my book, these are more biscuit than cookie.
They also go to Bookmarked Recipes over at Tinned Tomatoes as these cookies were the very first recipe I bookmarked from The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook.
Jings – I adore walnuts and these walnut cookies look fabulous, Choclette!
They really are good Jill. I went through a phase when I couldn’t stop making them.
these look so good. Do they taste a bit like macaroons? I really am intrigued how they taste. So do make us another batch and pop them in the post… or I guess I could make them myself but yours look so pretty xx
Not much like macaroons no, but they are very good – chewy in the middle and crisp on the outside or bake a little longer and crisp all the way through.
Just had another go at these cookies. This time with buckwheat flour (and lard). They are a lot darker than on the photo above and again nice and brittle. It is probably the effect of using lard instead of coconut oil. Anyhow: they are delicious. I do have a slight preference for the rice flour.
The original recipe was for cornflour and I think these photos are actually from the first batch I made Henk which is probably why they are lighter in colour – I also didn’t cook them for quite as long. The 2nd batch with buckwheat were a little darker, but I also cooked them for longer which made them crisper too.
hmmm sound nice but I would substitute almonds or hazelnuts as I cant eat walnuts but the rest sounds interesting.
I’m sure either of those two would work Elaine, though I reckon hazelnuts would be the best. How about Brazil nuts?
Wow! These look amazingly good! I love walnuts in cookies. I wonder how easy they would be to degluten?
I think the answer to that Kate is for you to experiment. I can’t imagine they’d be that difficult. I’d try with standard gluten free flour for the (wholemeal/plain mix and stick with buckwheat or cornflour for the other bit.
I always love the combination of more unusual grains and nuts so these have got me excited.
Thanks Bintu. I often add buckwheat to my bakes when I’m looking for something to lighten up wholemeal or spelt.
These look delicious. I’ve never really thought of Chinese food including cookies, other than fortune ones. I love the changes you’ve made. GG
I was a little taken aback too GG. I’ve not tried a bought one, but these are certainly very good.
I love the idea that eating them will increase brain power, I’m surprised you stopped at two with your cuppa 😀
Janie x
Shhhh, Janie, don’t give away all my secrets 😉
I’ve never tried Chinese cookies but they do look so delicious! Love the healthy substitutes that you made 🙂
Thanks Nadia. Often I use wholemeal spelt, but we do have a local flour mill which produces stoneground local whole wheat flour, so I like to use quite a lot of that too. I’m also a fan of buckwheat flour and often add a bit of this to baking recipes.
Just had two, very fresh cookies ! First the alterations: I used lard, as in the original recipe, rice flour instead of buckwheat, and 45 g. of pecans, because I had run out of walnuts.
It is a somewhat dryish, brittle cookie without being crumbly which makes them very pleasant to eat. Eventhough I raised the quantity of nuts and dry roasted them to bring out their taste even more, I still found the taste of the nuts not very prominent.
The dough is very easy to make and to work with, although I chilled it for an hour because of the higher ambient temperatures at this time of the year.
Would I make them again: oh yes !
Choclette’s suggestion to use buckwheat flour is a very good one. It will enhance the nutty flavour. But that will be for next time.
Thank you for all your feedback Henk. It’s really good to have and to see how you adapt the recipes. I think the dryness depends on how long you cook them. My first batch were crisp on the outside, but soft and chewy in the middle. The second batch were a lot dryer, I think I gave them an extra 2-3 minutes and the flours may changed things too.
They look perfect…I bet they’re delicious too.
I should give them a go.
xox
Thank you Manu, do give they ago, they are great little biscuits.
Interesting ! I plan these for tomorrow. With half butter/half lard (have some in the fridge), organic rice flour instead of buckwheat flour (to make it more Chinese, ha, ha ….) and much more walnuts 0.75 grams of chopped walnuts per cookie is not very much, or do you think it is enough ?
Rice flour is a nice idea, but I’d go with the stated amount of walnuts as a first off. Chop them fairly fine and they go a long way. More might overwhelm, but you could always do half and half – one lot with the correct amount and the other half with more. Then you can compare and contrast 🙂
I think they look rather cute, Choclette! Must have a wee nosey at their cookbook. 🙂
Thank you Sarah. Cut? Yes. And tasty? Yes, yes yes 😉
Love these pretty little cookies and walnuts taste fabulous in baked goods! Thanks for linking to my biscuits:-)
Happy to do so, your biscuits sound fabulous Camilla. I can attest that these are decidedly good too 🙂
I love walnuts, would love to try this recipe. I haven’t heard of the Dumpling sisters before, but saw an article in one of the magazines recently. A delicious recipe!
It’s a good book Galina – if you eat meat and fish. The biscuits are fabulous.
These walnut cookies look lovely! I love the fact that it uses different kinds of flours and coconut oil.
Thanks Angie. I do try and make my bakes healthier than most, although not perhaps as healthy as yours and certainly not as beautiful 🙂
How interesting! I guess the granulated sugar didn’t make it gritty at all? These look delicious!
No it didn’t at all Kerry. I was surprised to begin with, then remembered that until a few years ago, I never used caster sugar as it was so much more expensive than granulated.
these sound really interesting, I’m a big fan of nuts in biscuits so will bookmark this to try!
Thanks Roz. Your thumbprints looked rather splendid too.
I have heard of the dumpling sisters and would love to look at their book. I think the cookies sound so good, something very original about them 🙂
Thanks Laura, you’re right, they do seem a bit different, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. What I do know is they are very edible 😉 I find our local library is a great place to skim through new books.
These sound lovely, I love the flavour of walnuts. I don’t think I’ve ever had walnut cookies though!
Thanks Becca, now is your chance to try some walnut cookies – recommended 🙂
I like the sound of these!
I was surprised at just how good these were Suelle.
I love Chinese cuisine but have never heard of these. Love nutty flavours too so I’m sure I’d love them x
No, I’d not come across them before either Emily, but I think I might be enjoying these on a regular basis now 😉