Cherry cap cookies or more commonly known as sugee cookies is another one of my favorite Chinese New Year must-have cookie (besides Dragon Cookies of course) because I love the sweetness of the cookie and the crunchiness of semolina/sugee.
Why is it called cherry cap cookies? Don’t you think this cookie looks like a cap with a cherry on top? Actually it’s a name concocted by my grandma.
I’m sharing with you my grandma’s sugee cookies recipe. It’s been a few years since I last make them. I miss it so much. Yum-yum!
Recipe was updated on 24th Jan 2016.
Ingredients:
2 cups of plain flour or 220g, sifted
1 cup of sugee (semolina) or 146g, sifted
3/4 cup of castor sugar or 148g, fine type
150g of ghee or 5 heaped tablespoons (I use QBB brand)
Few pieces of glazed cherry, diced (red, green, etc)
You will also need a toothpaste cap as a mold.
Directions:
1. Combine flour, sugee and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix well.
Sifting semolina/sugee.
2. Add ghee into the mixing bowl. Mix well until the ghee cover every specks of flour, sugee and sugar. In my case, I use my hand to mix them.
Beautiful golden ghee!
3. Take a pinch of the paste and roll it to a small ball. I made mine 9g each.
4. Use a toothpaste cap to mold the ball as shown below.
5. Place a cherry on top of the cookie. Remember to press the cherry or it might easily fall off later.
Glazed cherry.
6. Bake at 180oC for 15 minutes. When it’s done, the cookie’s top side is light cream while the bottom side is light brown.
7. Remove from oven and let the cookies remain at the baking tray for about 6-8 minutes, then transfer them to wire rack to cool. Store in air-tight container.
This recipe makes about 73pcs. The quantity depends on the size you make. The outcome of this sugee cookie is crunchy with perfume-y taste of ghee. The sugar is not entirely melted. Such is the characteristic of this cookie. My childhood CNY cookie. So yummeh! 🙂
Just wanna show my arrangement skill. Hahaha. This is before baking. (2008)
Additional notes:
1. Initially the sugee cookies that we bake appeared crack. Reason because we didn’t add enough Ghee (we added 3 tablespoons at first). If you find after adding 4 tablespoons is still not enough, you can add a little bit more.
2. Roll the ball paste in little size so that it’ll look cute after baking.
I mixed the combination twice. In total I’ve got about 170pcs of cute sugee cookies.
Made these in 2008.
Made these in 2016.
Have fun making it.
35 Comments
too sweet for my teeth.
looks like christmas nipples. hehehehehehehe.
oooooooooooo! one of my favourite too but oh my. sugee! and ghee! and sugar!
but nice to have the recipe. can try making it instead of buying it. 😀
thanks, che-cheh! i think i’m going to be pretty busy this CNY
Wow, look delicious!
I learned to bake simple butter cookies, sometimes add oat into it, taste good~
I am going to try other level soon. haha!
CNY I come your house eat ok? :devil:
beautiful cookies. Looked delicious. Happy Chinese New Year
oh this is my fav too! thanks for sharing the recipe…
Yummy. You really have the love for baking/cooking. Good for you.
Dreamcatcher, yeah.
Hedo, :laughing:
Fer, show me your cookies when you’re done. 😀
Vhanded, yes I go slowly too. Bake simple one first.
Neo, can can.
Surfnux, hi welcome! Taste even better in your mouth hehe. Happy Lunar New Year.
Fashionasia, good to hear that you like this cookie too. Delicious hor?
Dawn, nothing beats the odd of making delicious food! :drool:
waaa u really into the baking mood! i dun quite like sugee cookies as much as i like dragon cookies!! eh woman, we should bake together someday!
:applause: i love sugee cookies too.
Looks like got a lot of sugar leh. But you know what? you make me feel like I should get an oven!
By the way, wishing you a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year! :party:
Yummy!!!! Can I order it online?
The cookies look great !
😀 Finally can get online to read your post..
Lex, weh if compared to you…you’re more a baking pro la.
Mo-C, muah muahhhh.
Hcfoo, yes you should get an oven. We can trade recipes then. Hehe! Thank you. Wish you a great Lunar New Year!
Alexallied, order already tutup. :laughing:
Keeyit, hehe thank you. Broadband ok liao?
🙁
Why my cookies all come out KO one! Not as expected…I think I cannot follow recipe but must have someone to guide me step by step.
Is the “paste” easy to roll, Che-Cheh? I roll and it all breaks apart! So frustrating! I already added more than 4 tbsp of Ghee (near 5) but still so “dry” the paste…is it supposed to be like that?
*haha* Sorry to “interrogate” you. 😛
Oh! Also, after baking, the cookies supposed to be crunchy? or soft like the ones bought from outside? is it because there’s a lot of ghee?
:grrr:
FeR, sorry for the late reply. Yes put more Ghee! It’s suppose to be something like crunchy…it’s the sugee ma. I never buy from outside so I don’t know the different.
no la, considered speedy reply since it’s CNY now! :laughing:
too much ghee not good hor? 😀
i followed ur instruction and all da ingredient above.. but my dough is too dry and i cant even roll it…even i added ghee also da same.. and i try to baked it…turn out da sugee is like not cooked still can feel da sugee hardness..
Hi June. I know this is several years later since your comment but I just wanted to let you know that I ended up using 200 gm of butter (didn’t have time to find ghee). That’s definitely not 4 tablespoons. I’m not sure if it’s because the recipe requires presifting of the dry ingredients before measuring, hence less in volume, or something else. I didn’t presift. My cookies ended up crunchy and buttery. Definitely too sweet as well so I’ll reduce sugar significantly while adding much more fats. Just to update!
Junn Liaw, sorry the recipe didn’t turn out well for you. For the too dry dough even after adding ghee, I guess you will need to add more. You’ll know when to stop when you press the toothpaste cover to the rolled ball and the ball didn’t crack. How many tablespoon of ghee did you add? When you bite into this cookies, yes you can still feel some sugee. This is the uniqueness of this recipe. I like feeling the sugee and sugar together. As long as it’s not too soft after bake then it’s done. It’s too hard maybe because it’s baked too long. Different oven call for different baking time as different oven as different temperature distribution. This is just my guessing ya based on my experience baking this cookie.
I am going to try it but how to judge 1 tbspfull. Is it like a mountain or flat?
Molly, it’s mountain full ya. Remember if the batter breaks you need to add more.
Let me try out the recipe :dancing:
Molly, tell me the result later ya. :party:
hi, just wanna ask, is the ghee ur referring to, melted ghee, oil-like ghee? or the ghee that is straight from the can?
Thanks!
Hi Gai, I’m referring to the ghee that is straight from the can. 🙂
how’s the texture like?
melt-in-d-mouth, crumbly, crispy, etc?
i’ve a great sugee cookie recipe but it calls for ground almond. The recipes yields crumbly melt-in-d-mouth sugee.
i love your idea of using the tooth paste cover 🙂
Hi Sofia, the cookie is very crunchy. This is not the melt in the mouth type. The crunch is due to sugee.
I’ve seen sugee recipe using almond but they don’t use sugee at all. Make me wonder why they bother to call it sugee cookie.
The toothpaste cover is my grandma’s idea. Hehe
Gonna try this receipe this weekend. Thanks for sharing dearie
Hi Theresa, thanks for trying. Hope you like it. 🙂
I love sugee cookies .I can eat them non stop
Me too! 🙂
hii its okay if i add a pinch of salt into the dough to balance the sweet taste ?
Hi Shinamika, sure you can. I would advise at first making half portion without salt and half with salt, and see which ones are to your liking. 🙂