Chef Makoa
Butter Mochi (Hawaiʻi Local Mochiko Coconut Cake)
A chewy, golden Hawaiʻi Local square from mochiko, butter, and coconut milk, baked in one pan until the edges pull crisp and the middle stays tender.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Chinese Almond Cookies (Hawaiʻi Local Red-Dot Cookies)
Created by
Buttery, sandy Chinese almond cookies from Hawaiʻi's Local table, marked with the lucky red dot, the kind you found in a bakery case, a manapua man's box, or a holiday tin.
Pastries & Cookies
Polynesian, Hawaiian
New Years
Holiday
Comfort Food
25 min
Active Time
15 min cook•1 hr 10 min total
Yield32 to 36 cookies
The cookie tin is how a lot of Hawaiʻi aunties tell you you're family. It comes out from the cabinet already dented, wax paper folded back, and there they are: pale-gold Chinese almond cookies with the little red dot in the middle, enough for the cousins, enough for the kid who only came by to drop something off. This is Hawaiʻi Local food, from Chinese hands in the islands, not the deep food of the loʻi, the irrigated taro patch. Different side of the table. Still part of the table.
Back home on Oʻahu, we learn that ʻāina, kānaka, meaʻai (land, people, food) doesn't only mean the canoe crops. It also means the people who came to work the plantations, opened shops, fed each other between hard shifts, and left sweets that became everyday habits. The Portuguese malasada, Okinawan andagi, Filipino hopia, Chinese gau, and this almond cookie sit close in the holiday season. That's not one plain Polynesian plate. That's Hawaiʻi naming every hand.
Across the Triangle, the deep cousins still have their own names: Sāmoan palusami, Tongan lū, Cook Islands rukau, Hawaiian laulau. This cookie is not one of those canoe-root relatives, and I won't pretend it is. It is the later cousin that arrived and stayed: red dot for luck, almond smell in the kitchen, crumb under your thumb, a sweet from the Chinese restaurant counter and the manapua man's box brought forward into the home oven.
So keep the method unfussy. Shorten the dough with butter and shortening or lard, chill it so it holds, mark the dot clean, and don't bake the color out of it. The cookie should break soft and sandy, not hard. No need make it precious. Just make enough for one more.
Chinese laborers were recruited to Hawaiʻi's sugar plantations beginning in 1852, and Chinese families later built shops, restaurants, bakeries, and street-vendor routes that helped shape Hawaiʻi's Local food. The almond cookie is a Chinese American bakery and restaurant sweet with roots in southern Chinese and Cantonese pastry traditions, then carried through Hawaiʻi's Chinese restaurants, manapua vendors, and holiday cookie tins. It belongs to the Local register, not Kanaka Maoli deep food: the post-contact table where Chinese, Portuguese, Okinawan, Japanese, Filipino, and other immigrant hands sit alongside Hawaiian food without being blurred into one name.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose flour
Quantity
2 1/4 cups
spooned and leveled
finely ground almond flour
Quantity
3/4 cup
cornstarch
Quantity
1/4 cup
baking powder
Quantity
1 teaspoon
baking soda
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
unsalted butter
Quantity
1/2 cup
softened
vegetable shortening or leaf lard
Quantity
1/2 cup
softened
granulated sugar
Quantity
3/4 cup
large egg
Quantity
1
room temperature
large egg yolk
Quantity
1
room temperature
almond extract
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons
vanilla extract
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
egg wash
Quantity
1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water
red gel food coloring or red liquid food coloring
Quantity
a dab of gel or 3 to 4 drops
for the center dots
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose flourspooned and leveled | 2 1/4 cups |
| finely ground almond flour | 3/4 cup |
| cornstarch | 1/4 cup |
| baking powder | 1 teaspoon |
| baking soda | 1/2 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| unsalted buttersoftened | 1/2 cup |
| vegetable shortening or leaf lardsoftened | 1/2 cup |
| granulated sugar | 3/4 cup |
| large eggroom temperature | 1 |
| large egg yolkroom temperature | 1 |
| almond extract | 1 1/2 teaspoons |
| vanilla extract | 1/2 teaspoon |
| egg wash | 1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water |
| red gel food coloring or red liquid food coloringfor the center dots | a dab of gel or 3 to 4 drops |
Equipment Needed
- •Two rimmed half-sheet pans
- •Parchment paper
- •Hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment
- •#60 cookie scoop or tablespoon
- •Blunt chopstick or clean dowel for the red dots
- •Wire cooling rack
Instructions
- 1
Mix the dry
Whisk the flour, almond flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until the almond flour has no heavy lumps. The cookie wants a sandy, even crumb, so break up the little clumps now instead of chasing them later.
If your almond flour feels coarse, rub it between your fingers with a spoonful of the flour. That keeps the cookie tender instead of pebbly. - 2
Cream it short
Beat the softened butter, shortening or lard, and sugar on medium speed until creamy and pale, about 2 minutes. Don't whip it like cake. The old bakery crumb is short, tender, and a little sandy under the teeth.
- 3
Add egg and almond
Beat in the egg, egg yolk, almond extract, and vanilla until the mixture looks smooth and smells strongly of almond. Scrape the bowl well. Almond extract is small but loud, yeah, so measure it instead of pouring from the bottle.
- 4
Bring dough together
Add the dry mixture on low speed and mix just until the dough gathers into soft clumps. It should feel tender and a little oily from the shortening, not wet and sticky. Cover and chill 30 minutes so the fat settles and the cookies hold their round shoulders.
- 5
Shape the rounds
Heat the oven to 350F and line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Roll tablespoon-size portions into balls, set them 2 inches apart, and press each one gently into a thick round about 1/2 inch tall. Brush lightly with egg wash, just enough to leave a soft satin shine.
- 6
Mark the dot
Dip the blunt end of a chopstick into the red food coloring and touch one clean dot in the center of each cookie. That's the red mark people look for in the tin, bright for luck and celebration, especially around New Year. Make a dot, not a puddle.
Wipe the chopstick after every few cookies so the color stays neat and doesn't drag across the egg wash. - 7
Bake pale gold
Bake 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the pan once, until the edges are pale gold and the tops are set with fine little cracks. They will still feel delicate. Let them sit on the pan 10 minutes before moving, because hot almond cookies break if you rush them.
- 8
Cool and tin
Move the cookies to a rack and cool completely before stacking. Once the crumb firms and the almond smell settles, tuck them into a cookie tin with wax paper. Bring the tin out after dinner, or leave it on the table for whoever walks in. That's the Local way.
Chef Tips
- •Shortening or lard gives the crumb that old bakery tenderness. All butter works if that's what you have, but the cookies will spread a little more and taste richer, less like the manapua-shop kind.
- •The red dot is small, but it matters to the look. Use gel color if you can, because it makes a clean mark without soaking the dough.
- •Don't overbake for deep brown edges. These cookies should stay pale gold, with a dry, tender snap and a crumb that falls sandy, not hard.
- •If your family's tin had a whole almond pressed in the center instead of a red dot, no fight. Press it in before the egg wash. Hawaiʻi Local food has many aunties, and they don't all do things the same.
- •These are for sharing after the meal, with coffee, tea, or whatever is on the table. Keeper, not gatekeeper.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the dough up to 2 days ahead and keep it wrapped in the refrigerator. Let it sit 10 minutes at room temperature before shaping if it gets too firm.
- •Shape the dough balls and freeze them up to 1 month. Thaw 15 minutes, press into rounds, egg wash, dot, and bake.
- •Baked cookies keep 1 week in a covered tin at room temperature. They taste best after they are fully cool and the almond scent has settled into the crumb.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 24g)
Calories
120 calories
Total Fat
7 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
25 mg
Sodium
70 mg
Total Carbohydrates
12 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
2 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Hawaiʻi Local Sweets & Bakery
Browse the full collection
Chef Makoa
Chichi Dango (Hawaiʻi Local Mochiko Candy for Girls' Day)
Soft squares of Hawaiʻi Local chichi dango, pale pink and white from the mochi-shop counter, baked with mochiko, milk, and coconut milk, then dusted until every sticky edge turns friendly.
Chef Makoa
Chocolate Haupia Cream Pie (Hawaiʻi Local Coconut Pudding Pie)
A Hawaiʻi Local bakery pie from Oʻahu: firm coconut haupia over chocolate cream in a flaky shell, chilled clean, topped with soft whipped cream.
Chef Makoa
Coco Puffs (Oʻahu Local Chocolate Choux with Hawaiʻi-Style Chantilly)
Honolulu bakery-case comfort: crisp choux puffs filled with soft chocolate pudding and capped with Hawaiʻi-style Chantilly, the buttery cooked frosting that belongs to Oʻahu birthdays, office boxes, and after-school hands.