Chinsuko

Okinawan Cookies

The Holiday is approaching with record speed. We try not to do too much as to gift giving…yet when I’m in a mall or some boutiques, my heart rate climbs up and I get sucked into a whirlpool of Christmas buy, buy buy…that has something to do with the music that they are playing insensitively. I rarely bake Christmas cookies, though a hot steaming cup of my fav decaffeinated Earl Gray tea needs some accompaniment of sweet little thing to ease my exhausted body and spirit?…yep! And time to re-exam my purchases…mostly buyers remorse…how in the world? I must have been insane!

Chinsuko, an Okinawan cookie that originated in China 400 years ago, were a gift sent by by my son and daughter-in-law. They traveled to beautiful Ishigaki Island south of Okinawa to see my son’s in-laws in late October. This earthy, crumbly and just the right amount of sweetness brings back my sanity…. I wonder if I could re-create this cookie?…right.. I have plenty of spare time... I’m a bit delusional!But vegan chinsukos are surprisingly easy and only need 4 ingredients.

Ingredients and Instruction for 20 Vegan Chinskos, (Print Recipe Here)
I mostly followed Kimihide Machino (町野仁英) ‘s recipe.

• 75g low Viscosity 薄力粉 flour
• 75g whole wheat flour
• 60g sugar or more to adjust sweetness.
• 60g vegetable oil

1. Lay the parchment paper on the cookie sheet. Sift flours together Set aside. Pre-heat oven to 356F
   
2. Put sugar and oil in bowl. Whisk until sugar is almost dissolved.
3. Add sifted flours in the bowl of sugar, oil mixture and combine.
4. Knead the dough by hand until the dough comes together. Note: if the dough is overly dry add a few drops of oil. Shape the dough to your choice
   
5. Place shaped dough onto cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. After it bakes leave on the cookie sheet until it cools down.

Variation – Yomogi chinsukos

• 70g of low viscosity flour
• 70g whole wheat flour
• 8g yomogi flour (Japanese mugwort) Note: may substitute with green tea powder( 抹茶パウダー), roasted green tea powder (ほうじ茶) or ginger powder
• 60g sugar
• 60g vegetable oil

Add yomogi powder in the sifted flours combine well.then follow the instructions above.

My husband usually opts out of Christmas shopping. Instead he worked on Kulebyaka, a savory Russian pie from a blogger milkandbun. It was a quite construction. He had to make crepe-like pancakes first…and it took him almost the entire Saturday afternoon to build. We had this for supper next three nights plus bonus of cinnamon rolls he made from left over bread dough…yeah I know we were over loaded with carbohydrate but it was sooo good.

It’s time to hit my favorite nursery for Christmas greenery…coincidently, reindeers were visiting also. OK, it was not the most famous reindeer of all but it’s Prancer!

 And a baby Cupid!

Here are some photos (imported from his FB) of my son, his wife and her parents. And a new monkey friend of Yaeyamamura (八重山村)Her parents own a restaurant Kurashita. Her father is an executive chef

My son is lucky to have really cool in-laws.