"Kuih Makmur" aka "Snowballs"

Kuih Makmur (Trixie’s version! :))

Warning: EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE!!

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup flour

½ cup clarified butter (ghee) (melted)

2 tbsp or 1/4 cup icing/ confectioner sugar (if you’re sugar conscious, you can omit/decrease this)

2 tbsp or 1/4 cup powdered milk (any type) (increase to 1/2 cup for added luxury!)

pinch of salt

1 cup icing/ confectioner sugar for makmur balls to roll around in!

Utensils:

1 baking tray/ cookie sheet that can hold approximately 2 ½ dozen makmur balls

mixing bowl

wooden spatula

frying pan/ wok

sieve

Steps:

1. Heat pan on medium-low.
2. Stir flour into pan; stir constantly for about 5 mins. Flour would slightly brown.
3. Sieve flour, icing sugar, salt and powdered milk into mixing bowl. Mix well.
4. Melt/heat clarified butter/ghee in the microwave and mix in to form a soft dough (wet sand-modeling clay consistency).
5. Shape into balls and place onto baking tray.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 170C. 
7. When done (small bubbles of heat will appear (and disappear) on top of balls and some browning also on bottom), let balls cool for 5 mins before rolling in icing sugar.

Variation:

For peanut flavor: You can add some peanuts (grind fine) into the flour mix or as filling (add a little peanut butter to make a paste). And/Or add 1-2 tbsp peanut butter to the ghee but add 1-2 tbsp flour to flour mix (to make sure the dough is not too soft).

For “Snowballs” (a “shortbread” style/type of kuih makmur): Substitute ghee above with regular butter/margarine and add vanilla essence. Also bake a little longer for about 15-20 minutes. Roll onto icing sugar to cover.

Notes:

The balls may be still quite soft (and hot!) even after several minutes of cooling down. If you do handle them while they are this soft, fine cracks may appear but the icing sugar will seal in the cracks. Or you choose those more presentable to serve friends but eat the ‘with-cracks’ ones yourself! :)