Happy almost Chinese new year! I celebrate all the other holidays of the year by baking elaborate cookie boxes and shaker cookies but I have never really done anything too big or extravagant for Chinese new year. I made these nian gao-stuffed cookies last year (they were so much fun!) but not much else beyond that. I promised myself that this year will be the year I do more for this special holiday because it is one of my favourite Chinese (and in general) holidays of the year. As I mentioned in the previous year, Chinese new year is celebrated with lots and lots of food — from sticky nian gao rice cake, to savoury taro and daikon cakes, and to trays of assorted sweets called Trays of Togetherness. This year I decided to make my own version of this tray of treats, but in a cookie box form (of course). This year, my tray is filled with classic stamped shortbread, shaker cookies, window cookies to represent fai chun, Chinese almond cookies, and chewy sesame cookies.
I have shared a tutorial on my shaker cookies before but I have updated it with even greater detail this time around to make sure you end up with the shaker cookies of your dreams. Of course these Chinese new year shaker cookies are filled with gold sprinkles and topped with edible gold leaf — you cannot celebrate Chinese new year without any gold. All the shaker cookies and fai chun cookies are made with the same shortbread dough as the stamped cookies and they are adorn with lucky Chinese ...