Almond cookies bring joy to holiday table

Family favourite based on recipe with origins in 16th-century China

Alan Small By: Alan Small Posted:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

When family rivalries take over the kitchen, sometimes a different recipe can help keep the peace.

Read this article for free:


By clicking the button above, an account will be created and you will begin to receive some of our recommended newsletters. You may opt out of any newsletter by visiting your Email and Communication Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/12/2020 (2142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When family rivalries take over the kitchen, sometimes a different recipe can help keep the peace.

For Sandra Hirschfeldt, the recipe that sets her apart is for Chinese Almond Cookies, which help provide a bit of variety on the dessert platter at family Christmas gatherings.

“My family does a lot of shortbread and I thought, ‘This is something different,’” says Hirschfeldt, who lives in Fort Richmond with Bob, her husband of 35 years. “I just like trying different things and it looked easy.”

Supplied The almond in the centre of these cookies is said to signify good luck.
Supplied The almond in the centre of these cookies is said to signify good luck.

The recipe Hirschfeldt shares for Day 9 of the Free Press’s 12 Days of Christmas Cookies comes from her well-thumbed copy of Company’s Coming Cookies, which was published in 1988.

Company’s Coming’s founder Jean Paré began the popular series back in 1981 by self-publishing her recipes and selling the plastic-coil-bound cookbooks in grocery stores, gas stations and country fairs near her home in Edmonton.

The business has since published more than 200 titles and has sold more than 30 million cookbooks, making Paré’s original venture one of Canada’s greatest entrepreneurial stories.

The cookbook offers no details as to what’s Chinese about the cookies and Hirschfeldt isn’t sure either, except that the almond flavouring and the almond in the centre sets the cookie apart from others.

According to the website Biscuit People, Chinese Almond Cookies go back to 16th-century China, when they were first created in the emperor’s palace as a gift. Commoners also loved them, and the recipe came to North America along with Chinese immigrants in the 1800s.

The almond in the centre represents good luck, the website says.

Bakers can add to their luck by taking some advice from Hirschfeldt, who has made the cookies countless times.

Supplied Sandra Hirschfeldt discovered the recipe for Chinese Almond Cookies in Company's Coming Cookies.
Supplied Sandra Hirschfeldt discovered the recipe for Chinese Almond Cookies in Company's Coming Cookies.

“When you make it up, make sure your dough is not too dry, because you have to form them into balls. If (the dough) gets crumbly, it’s hard to work with. Sometimes you have to add some moisture,” she says. “Sometimes it depends on the size of the egg or if you overmeasured the amount of flour.”

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall

Alan Small

Alan Small
Reporter

Alan Small has been a journalist at the Free Press for more than 22 years in a variety of roles, the latest being a reporter in the Arts and Life section.

   Read full biography

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Chinese Almond Cookies

For the cookies:

250 ml (1 cup) lard, room temperature

250 ml (1 cup) granulated sugar

1 large egg

10 ml (2 tsp) almond flavouring

625 ml (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour

5 ml (1 tsp) baking powder

5 ml (1 tsp) salt

For the topping:

48 blanched almonds

1 egg

15 ml (1 tbsp) water

 

Cream the lard and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat in 1 egg and the almond flavouring.

Stir the flour, baking powder and salt together and add them to the wet ingredients. Mix the batter together. Roll into 48 balls and arrange them on lightly greased baking sheets.

Place a whole almond in the centre of each ball and press to partially flatten the ball.

Beat 1 egg with water and brush the egg-and-water mixture over the cookies.

Bake in 180 C (350 F) oven for 8 to 12 minutes until the cookies are lightly browned.

The recipe makes 48 cookies.

Alan Small

Alan Small
Reporter

Alan Small has been a journalist at the Free Press for more than 22 years in a variety of roles, the latest being a reporter in the Arts and Life section.

   Read full biography

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Related Articles

Sweet treat journey wraps up at cookie café

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

St. James council candidate Kurt Morton, sitting at a playground at Marjorie Park on Marjorie Street, says recreation infrastructure hasn't been a city priority for years. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

City rec facilities crumbling

Ryan Thorpe 7 minute read Preview

City rec facilities crumbling

Ryan Thorpe 7 minute read Monday, Oct. 22, 2018

Throughout Winnipeg, decades-old community assets — pools, arenas and recreation and leisure centres — are deteriorating so quickly that service disruptions are inevitable.

Meanwhile, the city’s community services department, which is responsible for managing those assets, operates with an annual deficit of roughly $80 million, meaning there are scant resources to do little more than bail water on a sinking ship.

Soon, Winnipeggers will have a choice: fewer community services or higher costs.

“It poses a huge challenge because we have very limited dollars that we have to invest in our existing facilities. We also have growing demands for new amenities in new areas. We have to be very strategic,” said Ken McKim, manager of asset management for the department.

Read
Monday, Oct. 22, 2018

Err on the side of lung health

Mitch Calvert 6 minute read Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025

This summer, Manitobans aren’t just sweating under the August sun — we’re coughing, wheezing and blinking through a haze so thick you could mistake Portage Avenue for a foggy morning in San Francisco.

Recent air-quality readings put Winnipeg at the worst in Canada, with PM2.5 levels soaring well past the “very unhealthy” threshold. Health experts aren’t mincing words: prolonged exposure to this kind of pollution can increase risks of heart attacks, worsen asthma and even impact brain function and mental health. It’s not just your lungs feeling the burn, it’s your energy, recovery and overall resilience.

And while the headlines are everywhere, the lesson isn’t: you can’t out-train bad air. The basics of health — movement, nutrition, recovery — don’t change, but how you approach them needs to adjust when the environment throws you a curveball.

Here’s how to stay fit despite the forest-fire smoke.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Brian Bowman has been declared Winnipeg's new mayor.

Brian Bowman wins mayoral battle

Aldo Santin and Mary Agnes Welch 6 minute read Preview

Brian Bowman wins mayoral battle

Aldo Santin and Mary Agnes Welch 6 minute read Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014

In the end, it wasn’t even close.

A mayoral race that was supposed to be a head-to-head battle between privacy lawyer Brian Bowman and former NDP MP and MLA Judy Wasylycia-Leis turned into a rout on election night. Wasylycia-Leis, the experienced politician, had held what looked like an unassailable lead for months, but Bowman, the outsider who promised Winnipeggers a better, prosperous future, chipped doggedly away at it.

“I’m excited to tell you that positive change is coming to city hall,” Bowman told roaring supporters at the Inn At The Forks after making his way into the small ballroom accompanied by his wife and two young sons.

He said he hadn’t expecting such a landslide victory, but had believed that the campaign was building momentum.

Read
Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014
Supplied Rhian Brynjolson’s Life Support

Science-art collaboration injects dose of emotion into cold, hard truths

Sarah Lawrynuik 5 minute read Preview

Science-art collaboration injects dose of emotion into cold, hard truths

Sarah Lawrynuik 5 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 28, 2021

Looking at spreadsheets and map plots of trees is far beyond Rhian Brynjolson’s typical day as a visual artist, but she became entranced and inspired by data collected by Canadian scientists for a new art project.

Her hope is to try and bring the numbers, map dots and statistics to life in a new way to help the public better connect to climate science.

Falcon Lake’s Brynjolson is one of 12 Canadian artists who participated in an art-science collaboration exhibit, co-ordinated by the Global Water Futures program out of the University of Saskatchewan. The project saw the artists paired with researchers and scientists across the country who then engaged in conversations to try to inspire a new angle to their art.

“The whole idea behind it is: water is life,” says Louise Arnal, the project lead, and a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Hydrology and Coldwater Laboratory.

Read
Wednesday, Apr. 28, 2021
Dave Thompson / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Manchester United fans protest against the club’s majority owners, the Glazer family. The players were booed off the pitch last Sunday after dropping a 3-0 decision at home to Bournemouth in Premier League play.

State of Manchester United goes beyond ‘favourite soap opera’ status

Jerrad Peters 7 minute read Preview

State of Manchester United goes beyond ‘favourite soap opera’ status

Jerrad Peters 7 minute read 1:17 PM CDT

Last Sunday, during Manchester United’s embarrassing 3-0 loss at home to Bournemouth, supporters in the Stretford End of Old Trafford unveiled a giant banner in protest of their club’s decline.

Beneath depictions of three iconic captains — Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Bryan Robson — it presented a single word: “STANDARDS.” It wasn’t lost on anyone, as the Red Devils slumped to their meek defeat, that the banner represented the only “standards” in the stadium that afternoon.

The players were booed off the field, and the rest of the week was spent rehashing the inquiry of what, this time, might be wrong with England’s biggest club — an ongoing conversation the BBC has described as “one of the nation’s favourite soap operas.”

Inevitably, the public looked to the trio of greats whose likenesses looked down on the Bournemouth debacle to help make sense of the performance, of the ever-lowering bar of expectations and of the club’s more deep-rooted problems.

Read
1:17 PM CDT

A timeline of the WE Charity controversy

The Canadian Press 9 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020

OTTAWA - A timeline of events regarding the Canada Student Service Grant program, based on public documents, events and statements from cabinet ministers, government officials, and WE Charity:

March 6, 2020: WE Charity staff prepare a concept paper on service learning for public servants at Employment and Social Development Canada.

April 5: Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talk over the phone about how to help students whose summer job and volunteer opportunities were vanishing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finance Department officials are tasked with considering options the next morning.

April 7: Small Business Minister Mary Ng and WE co-founder Craig Kielburger have an introductory phone call in which Ng asks WE to send what it calls a ``pre-established proposal'' to help young people launch businesses.