The Chinese New Year season is a time when people celebrate by eating many of their favourite seasonal treats, including CNY cookies.
To attract customers, supermarkets in Singapore will showcase towers or piles of stacks of CNY cookies. People can enjoy such cookies at family gatherings, relatives' gatherings, and even social gatherings. While bingeing on these holiday cookies can be enjoyable, do you know the storey behind them and their significance - how they came to be so well welcomed in the Singaporean Chinese community?
Let's take a look at the significance of CNY cookies. In terms of family values, income, health, relationships, and profession, different cookies have different connotations. Some have meanings associated with fortunate goods such as gold ingots and good fortune. Listed below are a few examples:
- Love letters, which are shaped like cigars, are a favourite CNY cookie. They're not, however, cigars. According to legend, letters were once folded into wafer-like shapes to allow secret lovers to communicate with one another. It is said that if you eat these love notes, you will take the lovers' messages to your heart, implying that you will take them more seriously.
- Kueh Bangkit are delicious tapioca-flavored Chinese New Year biscuits that originated in China and grew in popularity in Malaya. They were utilised as ancestor altar offerings. With goldfish and chrysanthemum shapes symbolising prosperity and fortune, it was a traditional belief that the kueh bangkit cookies could help them conquer any problems in life. Later in Malaya, the Peranakan and Malay communities used them during the Chinese New Year or Hari Raya holiday, and the tradition lives on in Singapore and Malaysia to this day.
- Almond cookies are another popular Chinese New Year cookie that are a wonderful substitute for kueh bangkit biscuits. These cookies are unique in that they were created by Chinese immigrants in the United States from the early twentieth century onwards. These cookies are based on Chinese walnut cookies. The walnut in the centre is said to bring them good luck.
People are so fond of these CNY cookies that they will purchase for them in the weeks leading up to the festival. Some of them, though, would prepare them at home. There are some recipes that you can use to bake and prepare them.
Chinese almond biscuits are one of Singapore's most popular CNY cookies. They're popular since they're sweet and salty while still being easy to melt. Salt, baking soda, raw almond nuts, flour, sugar, and an egg are all common components. They'd be kneaded with a dough and baked till they were finished CNY cookies ready to enjoy.
The Chinese peanut cookies are similar, but they require more butter in the preparation. Such Chinese New Year sweets would be adored for their buttery flavour. Raw peanuts are utilised instead of almond nuts. They melt easily in lips, just like almond biscuits and kueh bangkit. In the local Singapore market, these CNY cookies are in high demand.
For more information, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Chinese_New_Year_foods
