Every time I browse through the snack aisles at an Asian market nostalgia pulls me back to my childhood and days spent after school with my grandparents who plied me with small plates of assorted packaged tea cookies (aka biscuits), savory-sweet soy glazed rice crackers, and glossy baubles of Cadbury chocolate-covered almonds. No one, least of all my grandparents, ever questioned the nutritional value of such fare for my growing six-year-old body. It was just a snack, a treat, not a meal. The only carrot sticks I ever saw when I was little where on my school lunch tray…that I never ate. So long I as sat down for reasonably balanced meals at supper–which usually included soup, rice, vegetables, and meat–they figured snacks were fine. Besides, it wasn’t as if I was being allowed to gorge on supersized bags of Cheetos, which, by the way, weren’t even a commonly available then.
We all had our favorite “idiosyncratic” snack foods. For my older brother Sam, it was dried scallops. He’s a huge fan of anything dried and salty–pork jerky, dried cuttle fish, fish skin, etc. Dried scallops are ridiculously expensive and used sparingly to enhance various dishes, so you can imagine how pissed off Mom was when she discovered he’d decimated half her supply. Dad had an affinity for Durian puffs. My brother Ken favors Japanese snacks. Mom likes crispy Phoenix egg roll cookies. Me, well I’m all over the place–sweet or savory–I’ll take them all. This explains why, when I do give into my Asian snack obsession I go big and I go wide–in terms of variety that is. Thank goodness they come in small to medium small packaging. Costco size just doesn’t work for a nibbler like me. I recently splurged on a selection of savory snacks in a bunch of on trend flavors, like Singapore-style Hainanese Chicken Rice flavored potato chips and Takoyaki puffs, along with a bag of the classic White Rabbit candy from an online Asian grocery service called Weee!
Back in the day–the 70’s and early 80’s that is–my parents and grandparents would take yearly trips back to Hong Kong to visit with family and friends, shop for cheap designer knock offs (oh all those fake Calvins and Gloria Vanderbilt jeans that never quite fit) eat everything they couldn’t find in San Francisco, and more importantly, stock up on precious pantry staples like dried scallops and mushrooms…and lots of snacks. While I missed my parents and grandparents, I have to admit I was more excited to see what was buried in their luggage, between the layers of designer knock offs, that invariable ended up taking on the distinct oceanic funk of the dried scallops or abalone. An aficionado of British confection, I went straight for the Rowntree fruit gums (very hard to find here back then) and soft chewy nougat, which I would try very hard to parcel them out, making them last at least a week. The savory snacks like pork jerky and pork floss were treated like gold, doled out sparingly. I learned the art of the nibble. Even after Mom learned how to make her own very deliciously respectable pork jerky decades later (after she stopped her annual trips to Hong Kong), we still treated it like a precious commodity.
These days, if you’re not fortunate enough to live near Asian market chains like H-Mart, 99 Ranch, Marukai, or even an Asian market, you can find most everything online..for a price, which essentially forces you to scrutinize your snack selection–not a bad thing really. Nothing worse than committing to a jumbo box of Salted Duck Egg Cookies (yes, they had that at the Daly City Costco), then realizing it tastes like nothing. For the record I did not buy them. I looked up a few reviews on YouTube and decided to try my hand at making them myself.
Salted duck egg-flavored snacks are all the rage these days on social media–from potato chips and fish skins, to corn flake snacks, ice cream and cookies. Salted duck eggs themselves, though, have long been a staple of Asian cuisine. Apparently one of my favorite things to eat when I was a toddler was steamed rice and salted duck egg (as well as steamed rice and salted fish). I was a sucker for umami and salt even back then! Incorporating salted duck egg yolks into a sweet cookie is actually kind of genius. You get the deep, rich complex savoriness of the preserved yolk offsetting the sweetness of the buttery dough. The trick is achieving a perfect texture in the crumb. One of the main complaints levied against the brand sold at Costco, aside from blandness, was that the cookie had a dry, almost brittle texture, resembling more like a cracker.
After much research into numerous cookie recipes, I developed one that employed a trifecta of ingredients to ensure a melt-in-your-mouth crumb–potato starch, milk powder, and Bird’s custard powder. I never actually make custard with the Bird’s powder. I merely like having it around to incorporate into baked goods. The combination of these three ingredients help to reduce the amount of gluten formation in the dough, thereby producing a more delicate crumb. I creamed the butter with both granulated and powdered sugar, a method I use when I make shortbread. There’s just a tiny amount of baking powder to give the cookie a little rise. The salted duck eggs I ordered from Weee! were pre-cooked so I only had to peel and discard the shell and whites. The yolks were a bit on the small side so I adjusted all the other ingredients to account for that. I wanted there to be enough salted egg flavor to come through in the final product without having to crack open another egg. Next time, I’m going to buy just the cured yolks, steam them, and do away with the wasted whites.
Once the dough was thoroughly rested and chilled, I rolled and punched out fluted rounds as I would with any other shortbread-like cookie. I brushed the surface with egg wash, scored a cross-hatch design with a fork and sprinkled on a tiny bit of black sesame seeds before baking at 350F degrees for about 11 mins.
I’d resisted the temptation to add a touch of vanilla extract to the dough. I’m glad I did because leaving it plain really gave the subtle salted duck egg flavor a chance to shine through. At first bite the buttery cookie practically dissolved on my tongue, a beautiful dance of sweet and savory notes. Okay, I get now why salted duck egg cookies are so popular…and addicting. Who wouldn’t want few of these paired with a hot cup of oolong tea? Snack goals.
Another snack aisle-inspired baking project–hey if I’m turning on the oven for cookies I might as well squeeze out another baked good–was to turn a small tub of pork floss, which I’d purchased on a whim during a recent grocery run at the neighborhood Asian market, into Scallion Pork Floss Milk Bread Twists. These are a classic Chinese bakery item. I had three bunches of scallions sitting in the vegetable bin of my fridge so this was a good excuse to use some of it up. I made a couple minor adjustments to a recipe I found on YouTube, mixing a little toasted sesame oil into Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise (God I love that stuff!) to “glue” the pork floss and scallions to the dough, significantly increasing the amount of scallions and pork floss, and subbing out some of the bread flour with all-purpose for a softer, fluffier milk bread. I probably should’ve divided the dough into five portions instead of four, because once the formed twists completed their second rise, they were HUGE!
Each one was almost big enough to serve two people…almost. I managed to polish off 2/3 in one sitting. I’d say my weekend Asian baking adventures were a success. But it’s only the beginning. I’m not quite done playing around with salted duck eggs and pork floss. Stay tuned…
For the Salted Duck Egg Cookies, you can substitute corn starch for potato starch. While I’ve not tried it myself, you might be able to substitute vanilla pudding mix for the Bird’s custard, though like I said, a can of Bird’s is a good ingredient to have in your baking pantry and can easily be found on Amazon, along with the cooked salted duck eggs and pork floss.
Salted Duck Egg Cookies
Yield: about 3 dozen 2″ cookies
- 120 g unsalted butter, softened
- 30 g powdered sugar
- 35 g granulated sugar
- 1/4 t. sea salt
- 4 cooked salted duck egg yolks, mashed into a paste
- 180 g all-purpose flour
- 25 g dry milk powder
- 30 g potato starch
- 2 t. Bird’s custard powder
- 1/4 t. baking powder
- egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 t. water)
- black sesame seeds (optional)
- Cream together butter, sugars, and salt until smooth. Add the yolks and continue beating until fluffy.
- Sift together the remaining ingredients and add to the butter mixture. Mix until all the dry ingredients are fully incorporated.
- Transfer the dough onto a sheet of cling film, wrap it into a disk, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 mins.
- Roll the chilled and rested dough on a lightly flour surface to between 1/6″ to 1/8″ thickness. Punch out disks with a 2″ cutter and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush surfaces with egg wash. Make a cross-hatch design by dragging the tines of a fork across the surface in both directions. Finish with a tiny sprinkle of black sesame seeds.
- Bake cookies in a preheated 350F degree oven for 11-12 mins. or until lightly golden. Cool cookies on a rack.
Scallion Pork Floss Milk Bread Twists (adapted from Modern Mian)
Yield: 4-5 twists
Milk Bread Dough:
- 3 T. water
- 1/2 c. + 3 T. whole milk, divided
- 200 g + 2 T. bread flour, divided
- 120 g all-purpose flour
- 1 T. instant yeast
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 1 t. sea salt
- 4 T. unsalted butter
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- Whisk together water, 3 T. whole milk, and 2 T. bread flour in a small pot until smooth, then cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture becomes a very thick paste. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, then the remaining milk and egg.
- In a food processor fitted with a dough blade or stand mixer with a dough hook, combine the flours, yeast, sugar, and salt. Add the wet ingredients. Mix together to form a smooth elastic dough. It should take about 90 secs. in the processor, 5-6 mins. in the mixer on medium speed.
- Form the dough into a smooth ball and place inside a well-oiled bowl large enough to allow the dough to double in size. Flip the dough around to coat on all sides with oil, then cover the bowl with a clean dishtowel or plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm space until doubled.
Assembly:
- 1 c. pork floss
- 2 large scallions, chopped
- 4 T. Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie)
- 1 t. toasted sesame oil
- egg wash
- Deflate the dough and divide into 4-5 equal portions and shape each one into a ball.
- Working with one dough ball at a time, keeping the remainder covered, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 5″x 8″, with the long side in front of you.
- Mix together the mayonnaise and sesame oil, then spread about a tablespoon evenly across the surface, leaving a 1″ border around the edges. *Use a little less if you’ve got 5 portions of dough.
- Sprinkle on a liberal layer of scallions, then pork floss. Roll the dough into a tight pinwheel log and pinch the seam closed.
- To make the twist, cut each log lengthwise down the center. With the cut sides facing out, form an X with the two halves, then criss cross the two strands from the center out, tucking under the ends.
- Transfer the twists onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (divide between 2 sheets if baking 5 twists), brush the surface with egg wash and lightly drape with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until doubled in a warm space.
- Bake in a preheated 350F degree oven for 20-25 mins. until golden, or to an internal temperature of at least 195F.
