Melt-in-you-mouth pastry filled with a sweet peanut filling and dust with icing sugar is popular Malay Eid and Chinese New Year Cookies. The recipe is eggless and easy to put together.
Prepare the filling (if you choose to do filling):
Mix all ingredients for filling in a bowl. Set aside
Prepare the pastry dough:
Preheat oven at 320 F (160 C) for a conventional oven and 300 F (150 C) for a convection oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Please make sure the butter or ghee is soft and not melting
Combine the butter/ghee, salt, flour and pandan essence in a mixing bowl. Rub the butter/ghee with the flour to form a sand-like texture. Mix until you can form a dough that won't crumble. Add about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of water at a time if the dough still feels dry. You shouldn't need too much water to be able to form a dough
Shape the cookies:
Divide the dough into 18 equal pieces, about 20 grams each, roughly. Use your thumb to make a well in the center of the dough, wide enough to put about 1 teaspoon of the filling in. Seal the dough and roll into a smooth round or oval shape. Place on a parchment paper about 1/2-inch apart. The cookie doesn't spread much
Once you are done filling and shaping the dough, if you have a crimper, you can crimp the middle and both sides to create a leaf pattern. I don't have a crimper, so I just use a fork to imprint both sides
Baking:
Place the baking sheet in the middle of the oven. Bake for 20 minutes. The cookies will not brown much. Remove from the oven and let them cool down on the tray for about 3 minutes
Dusting:
Transfer the pastry to a cooling rack and dust with some icing sugar. Let them cool down completely before storing them in an air-tight container