“chinese new year” peanut cookies with chocolate cherry hearts

• remove peanuts from shells (if necessary), place all in a frying pan and heat and stir at high heat for 5 minutes, until darker and more fragrant, remove from heat and let cool
• pat candied cherries dry (if slightly covered in syrup) and insert toothpicks inside and place in freezer on a plate to chill
• melt chocolate with butter and cocoa powder in a double-boiler (bain-marie)
• remove cherries from freezer and immediately dip each one inside the melted chocolate, shake off excess and place each on waxed paper and then re-chill in the refrigerator
• in a food-processor, pulse peanuts into a powder form (not a paste)
• whisk together the flour(s), icing sugar, baking powder and add to the food-processor and pulse until well-mixed, then slowly add peanut oil (mixed with vanilla extract), one-third at a time and pulse until a crumbly dough forms
• remove dough from mixing bowl and press into a ball (chill if too soft or warm) then separate and form dough into 20 round balls (about 4 cm) and re-chill in the refrigerator
• flatten each ball of dough into a disk (large enough to wrap around the chocolate-covered cherries), place chocolate-covered cherries in the middle and wrap and press into a round sphere and re-chill everything
• preheat oven to 180°C
• if you don’t have a mold, simply place cookies on a cookie sheet with baking paper, space them apart about 5 cm, brush tops with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes until golden, turn off the oven and let sit 5 minutes in the oven before removing

note : they will flatten while baking and the dough may partly slip off and reveal the top of the chocolate-covered cherry in the middle and you can also simply make the peanut cookies without the chocolate chery centers, it's the same recipe …

• if you have a spherical 2-part cake-pops silicone mold, make the spheres just slightly smaller than the mold cavities, brush the insides with peanut oil (top and bottom parts/sections of mold) place peanut cookies inside and cover with top section of mold and bake for 20 minutes, then flip over, without opening the mold, bake for 5 more minutes, open the mold, gently brush tops with egg wash and bake for 10 more minutes until golden

note : the spherical cake-pops mold will provide you with perfectly round sphere cookies but takes longer to cook because completely covered on top, you may also re-brush them again with egg wash and let sit 5 more minutes in the oven (after you have turned it off, to bake them slightly more without burning them)

• let cookies cool before removing from mold or cookie sheet and serve.