Chinese Five Spice Honey Snaps

Chinese Five Spice Honey Snaps

Adapted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich

57 grams (4 Tbs) unsalted butter

96 grams (3 Tbs) honey

55 grams (¼ cup) sugar

¼ tsp Chinese five spice powder

57 grams (½ cup) all purpose flour, sifted before measuring

2 pinches of salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter four baking sheets if you’ve got that many. If not you just won’t be able to drop all the batter before baking, which is okay, you’ll just have to work a little quicker to switch out baking sheets.

In a small saucepan, heat the butter, honey, sugar and spice powder over low heat, until the butter is melted. Remove the pan from heat and stir in flour and salt. Mix well.

Drop 6 teaspoons of batter onto each baking sheet, allowing planty of room for spreading. Place one sheet at a time in the oven and bake until they are golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. While they are baking, butter the handle of a wooden spoon.

When the first batch is done, take it out and immediately replace it with the next batch. Allow to cool for about 15-20 seconds, then lift one with a metal spatula onto the wooden spoon handle (or on a cooling rack if you don’t want to curl them). Lay the hot snap on the spoon handle and let it hang down. Fit as many as you can on the handle and let them stay there until they firm up, about a minute. Repeat for all 6 snaps of the first batch. If they harden before you can roll them, return the baking sheet to the oven for a few seconds to allow them to soften up. Do not bake more than 6 at a time or you won’t be able to keep up. Cool completely.

Note: Even a little too much flour may result in a thick and tough, rather than thin and crisp snap. Use a scale if you can.