Soft buttery cookies are infused with the salty umami salted egg yolks to give you sweet, salty, and crumbly cookies. One of the popular cookies for Chinese New Year celebration.
Steam the salted egg yolks for 10 minutes and mash with a fork and set aside. Let butter comes to room temperature, about 30 minutes or so. I cut into smaller pieces and they get soft faster that way
Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. You should be able to easily mash the butter with a spatula or a spoon. Add sugar and stir until combine. Add the mashed salted egg yolks and gradually add in the dry ingredients and mix until it forms a soft slightly sticky dough. Flatten the dough into a round disc and wrap with a plastic wrapper and refrigerate for 30 minutes
Preheat oven to 340 F. Place the rack 3rd from the top. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough out to about 1/2-inch thickness. You can use a cookie cutter to cut the dough out. Or you can just pinch small pieces of dough and roll them into round balls and slightly flatten with your palm. Or you can roll the dough into a log and cut into pieces (like I did in the video)
Place the cookies about 1-inch apart, they may spread a little, but not too much. Brush each cookie with egg wash and sprinkle with white sesame seeds. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes They should be golden brown
Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. The cookies are more fragile when they are warm. Carefully transfer to cooling rack to let them cool down completely. Store in an air-tight container and they can last for weeks (they won't last that long, trust me!)
Video
Notes
If you can't find fresh salted egg yolks, you can use the already frozen salted egg yolks, you will need about 36 grams