Kai Chai Pang

Ingredients:
300g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 ammonia powder/baking ammonia
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1 tbsp icing sugar
60g sesame seed
100g candied wintermelon(chopped finely)
1/2 tbsp garlic(minced very finely)
30g cooking oil
2 pieces nam yue(red fermented beancurd)
1 egg(lightly beaten)
30g maltose(mai tang)

What to do:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degree C. Line baking trays with parchment paper because the cookies will stick to the baking pan.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well.
3. Mash the nam yue and combine this and all the other wet ingredients together with the dry ones.
4. Mix and knead gently into a soft dough.
5. Roll dough into small marble size pieces.
6. Place each marble sized dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper and flatten with rolling pin.
7. Transfer to baking tray and bake for 15-25 min or till golden brown and crispy(time taken depends on how thick and big your biscuit is).
8. Cool on wire rack and store in an airtight container.

Notes:
1. I added 2 1/2 pieces of nam yue because I read up from the other ladies in KC that the original recipe called for 1 piece and it wasn't enough.
2. I used 1 1/2 eggs to combine the dry and wet mixture because it seemed far too dry when i used 1 egg. You can judge for yourself on how dry/wet the dough is and if you need more egg…
3. I did a research on ammonia powder since I didn't have it in my kitchen and didn't want to buy it just for this recipe… ammonia powder was very popular in the olden days. It yield a very light , airy product, but can impart an ammonia flavour to baked goods, though this can be prevented if the cookies are thin and allows the ammonia smell to evaporate. It is best used in cookies which are flat enough to allow the ammonia to dissipate during cooking because ammonia is heat activated.
You may substitute one teaspoon of ammonia powder = one teaspoon of baking soda PLUS one teaspoon of baking powder.
You will not get the exact same texture using ammonia powder but its good enough…

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