These peanut puffs make great tea time treats. The puffs are made with a simple homemade pastry and filled with sweet peanut filling. With a light dredge of icing sugar on top, these puff snacks are simply irresistible.
The puffs were very easy to make and you can be prepare them pretty fast too. You can make a batch of these snack in one hour, from start to end. So if you are looking for something quick to fix for teatime or snack food for the whole family, these puffs are definitely worth trying.
These peanut puffs are adapted from my homemade fried dough recipe. With the same pastry dough recipe, instead of cutting and frying the dough and then coating it with sugar syrup, I choose to add simple homemade peanut filling between 2 pieces of pastry and fry them before dredging with powdered sugar.
The recipe below is also for a small batch. If you want to make more, simply double or triple the recipe measurement.
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❤️Why you will love this recipe
- These recipe makes absolutely delicious peanut puffs, with a lovely crunch on the outside and soft on the inside.
- The puffs are made using all natural ingredients and are made from scratch including the pastry.
- There are no artificial flavors.
- There is no egg in this recipe making it perfect for vegetarians and those with egg allergy.
- These treats are easy to make and make great snacks or tea time treats, to be enjoyed with the whole family.
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📋Ingredients
Pastry
- All purpose flour - Sift first to break any lumps.
- Cold butter - I use salted butter. You can also use unsalted butter, and if you do, add ⅛ teaspoon of fine salt into the flour. Butter should be firm but sufficiently soft to cut it into cubes.
- Water - Similar to butter, water should be cold. Use ice water if possible, but definitely avoid using warm water as it can melt the butter and make your dough greasy.
- Oil - for frying. Any odorless vegetable oil like canola or sunflower oil will work.
Filling:
- Peanuts - these should be roasted and the thin brown skin removed.
- Brown sugar - to sweeten the filling.
Coating:
- Powdered sugar - best sifted to break any lumps.
*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and Variations
- Butter can be substituted with margarine and no extra salted in required other than that mentioned in the recipe. Margarine is salted, similar to salted butter.
- For added flavor, you can add half teaspoon of lightly roasted sesame seeds to the peanut filling.
- Instead of powdered sugar coating, you can also coat these peanut puffs in simple syrup like in this fried dough recipe.
- For a less sweet option, you can also omit the powdered sugar dredge on the puffs. The peanut puffs will taste just as good without the powdered sugar.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🍳How to Make
Making the pastry
- Sift flour into a medium sized bowl.
- Add the cubed cold butter into the bowl and rub the flour and butter until the butter is well combined and the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. If you are doing this by hand, mix with the tip of your fingers.
- Make a well in the center. Pour in the cold water in batches until the dough comes together into a soft ball. At this stage, the dough will not be smooth.
- Cover the dough and leave it to rest for approximately 5 to 10 minutes.
- Knead the dough until it becomes a smooth ball. You will notice that the dough can be kneaded smooth in just a few minutes after resting.
Making the filling
- To make the filling, dry roast the shelled peanuts. Remove the brown skin.
- Process the roasted peanut coarsely. You can do this in a food processor or by hand in a mortar and pestle.
- Transfer the peanuts into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.
Assembling the puffs
- To assemble the peanut puffs, divide the pastry dough into smaller sections. Work with one section at a time for easy handling. Roll the pastry thinly (about 2mm thick) and then cut it into squares. The ones I have on this page were about 5cm squares.
- Each puff is made of 2 of these pastry squares. Add the filling into the center of one piece and cover it with the second piece.
- And then pinch the sides thoroughly to seal the filling so that no gap of unsealed pastry is left. It is important to note that the peanut-brown sugar filling might ooze out while frying if there are any gaps so the pinching process is really important.
- Also, do note that thinly rolled pastry will result in crispy peanut puffs while not so thinly rolled pastry will result in puffs that are crispy on the edges but soft on the inside.
Frying the puffs
- To fry the puffs, add oil into a large frying pan or a deep fryer. Turn on the heat to medium to heat up the oil.
- Once the oil is heated up, add the puffs and fry until golden brown. Turn the puffs over half way through frying so that both sides cook well.
- Transfer the puffs with a slotted spoon onto a plate lined with kitchen towels to absorb excess oil.
- Place the puffs on a serving plate and dust them with powdered sugar before serving.
🍽️Serving & storage
- These peanut puffs are best eaten fresh, on the day they are made. I often make them a few hours before serving. That way, the puffs have fresh crispiness to them. Keeping them overnight causes them to lose this crispiness and they tend to become a bit dry.
- You can, however, mix the pastry dough and make the filling in advance. The pastry can be made and refrigerated 2 or 3 days in advance. The filling, can be made up to one week in advance.
💡Expert Tips
- The peanuts were dry roasted on a pan on the stovetop until they were well cooked and crunchy. Once the peanuts were cool, ground them coarsely. I prefer the peanuts to be slightly chunky and so I only ground them very slightly. And then add brown sugar to the ground peanuts and the filling is ready. If you like them finer, you can grind them finer.
- It's always better assemble and dry the puffs in batches as the sugar in the peanut filling might start melting in the uncooked puffs after some time (after assembling) and that might result in the sugar oozing out of the puffs (even though the puffs have been well sealed) when frying.
- You can use any vegetable oil for frying the puffs. I used palm oil. Peanut oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, and coconut oil (in liquid form) will be good options for frying these treats too.
💭FAQs
Peanut puff is a pastry treat with peanut filling on the inside. The pastry is made using flour, butter and water and is then rolled and filled with peanut filling. The peanut filling is made up of roasted peanuts and sugar.
The pastry puffs are then deep fried and dredged with powdered sugar before serving.
The proportion of butter to flour in making the pastry contributes to the crunchiness of the pasty. The lower the ratio of flour to butter, the crunchier the pastry will be.
The ratio of flour to butter in this peanut puffs recipe will give you puffs that are crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside.
Adding too much water to the dough can make it sticky. If this happens, rest the dough for a few minutes and try kneading again. If it is still sticky, add some flour.
One obvious reason is if you have used too much flour or too little water. Follow the measurement indicated in the recipe. For best results, use a kitchen scale to measure the flour.
To correct the hard dough, you can knead some water into it, but do it in small increments. The dough can be sticky and messy as you knead the water into it, but will eventually come together smoothly.
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📖Recipe
Peanut Puffs
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
Pastry
- 150 g all purpose flour sifted
- 50 g butter salted
- ¼ cup cold water
- Oil for frying
Filling:
- 20 g peanuts dry roasted
- 10 g soft brown sugar
Coating:
- Icing sugar
Instructions
- Put flour in a clean bowl. Add butter and rub it into the flour until the flour resembles bread crumbs.
- Make a well in the center and pour in the water, little at a time and knead well. Stop adding water once the dough comes together and is soft.
- Let the dough rest for 5 to 10 minutes before rolling it out.
- To assemble the puffs, take a small amount of the pastry and roll it thin (about 2mm thick). Thin pastry will result in crispy puffs and not so thin pastry will result in puffs that are crispy on the edges but soft on the inside.
- Cut the rolled pastry into equal sized squares, about 5 cm wide each. Add about ½ teaspoon of peanut-brown sugar filling in the center of one square and cover it with another square. Seal the sides well by pinching the edges firmly.
- Fry the puffs in oil until they turn golden brown. Remove from oil and place on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.
- Transfer the fried puffs onto a plate and dust them with powdered sugar. These puffs are best served and consumed immediately.
Notes
- The peanuts were dry roasted on a pan on the stovetop until they were well cooked and crunchy. Once the peanuts were cool, ground them coarsely. I prefer the peanuts to be slightly chunky and so I only ground them very slightly. And then add brown sugar to the ground peanuts and the filling is ready. If you like them finer, you can grind them finer.
- It's always better assemble and dry the puffs in batches as the sugar in the peanut filling might start melting in the uncooked puffs after some time (after assembling) and that might result in the sugar oozing out of the puffs (even though the puffs have been well sealed) when frying.
- You can use any vegetable oil for frying the puffs. I used palm oil. Peanut oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, and coconut oil (in liquid form) will be good options for frying these treats too.
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