Chinese Peony Pastry 牡丹形酥餅

Dear readers, I have recently discovered a most fabulous book of dim sum!  Dim sum 點心 is a traditional Cantonese style of dining on small bite sized tidbits, both sweet and savory, all exquisitely presented, while drinking fragrant Chinese tea.  Ooooo..we love us some dim sum, how about y'all?

The dim sum book of which I speak is 正統中式點心全書: 師承香港傳奇料理大師 by 吉岡勝美 which translates into The Complete Book of Authentic Chinese Dim Sum by Katsumi Yoshioka.  The Japanese author of this book apprenticed with the legendary culinary master Chef Liang Jing 梁敬, at the 敬賓酒家, a famous Cantonese restaurant in the 80's.

This is our first try at a recipe from this book and boy-o-boy are we pleased!  Around a delicious heart of creamy lotus seed paste, this Chinese Peony Pastry 牡丹形酥餅 opens out in the most delicate flaky pastry petal layers, looking just like real peony blossoms.  Super duper uber gorgeous amirite?!  And the perfect special treat to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Sweet Cow Ear Cookies 甜牛耳朵餅

As promised, here is my sweet version of that festive Chinese New Year treat, the Cow Ear Cookie. In our last post we discussed the recipe for the traditional Chinese Cow Ear Cookie 牛耳朵餅,  a savory cookie flavored with the exotic flavors of the Chinese red fermented bean curd.  I found the flavors of the red fermented bean curd in a cookie so intriguing that I decided to try to make a sweet version of the same.  

Here is the result, my version of a Sweet Cow Ear Cookie 甜牛耳朵餅, a buttery sweet pinwheel cookie swirled through with the distinct umami flavors of the Chinese red fermented bean curd.  Psst...tell you a secret...I think we like these sweet cookies even better than the traditional savory ones!!