Taiwanese Breakfast Cookie

On most days, you will catch me having a cup of black coffee for breakfast, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that I’m not a breakfast person. In fact, I’m very much so a breakfast person. My ‘breakfast person’ qualities are most evident when there is a Taiwanese breakfast involved. I always knew I was a big fan of a classic Taiwanese breakfast spread but it wasn’t until my recent trip to Taiwan with my family that I was fully exposed to what a Taiwanese breakfast could really be. My favourite parts of the week-long trip were all the early morning strolls downstairs where we could choose from endless options of breakfast spots. Breakfast usually comes in the form of street food in Taiwan. Every corner was characterized by at least one stall steaming fluffy man tou, rolling out Chinese donuts, and ladling piping hot soy milk into paper cups. You can take the breakfast on the go or eat it at one of the many communal tables surrounded by multi-coloured stools.

What is a Taiwanese breakfast?

The typical Taiwanese breakfast consists of a lot of eggs and carbs — freshly made you tiao, flakey shao bing, and bouncy dan bing. It’s all washed down with a hot cup of soy milk.

You tiao is a cruller-style of Chinese doughnut. The Chinese name translates to ‘oil stick,’ but the simplicity of it’s name fails to describe how wonderful of a pastry it truly is. You tiao are often made as two foot-long rolls of dough joined along the middle. When fried, the you tiao expands a forms a butterfly shape. It is crispy on the outside while the centre remains chewy and tender. They can be eaten as is, or rolled inside a thin crepe or shao bing.

Shao bing refers to a flaky, unleavened pastry that are usually rectangular, thin, flat, and covered in sesame seeds. They can be eaten plain by most often they are filled with a Chinese doughnut or scrambled eggs.

Dan bing is essentially an egg crepe or pancake. The texture of the dan bing is different than what we know as a crepe. It’s just as thin, but texturally a dan bing crepe is a bit bouncier with the addition of potato starch and/or glutinous rice flour. It’s often served with a a sweet soy or sweet chili sauce.

(You can see all three of these breakfast staples in my Fu Hang breakfast spread)

Soy milk is the beverage of choice at a Taiwanese breakfast stall. It can be enjoyed plain, sweetened, or savoury with a variety of toppings.

Anatomy of a Taiwanese breakfast cookie

I wanted to incorporate all my favourites parts of a Taiwanese breakfast into this cookie. To me, the defining component of the breakfast is the combination of you tiao and soy milk, so those ingredients will be the star of the cookie. The base of the cookie is similar to a classic chocolate chip cookie — a chewy, brown sugar cookie dough but flavoured with toasted soy bean powder (soy milk) topped with roasted sesame seeds (shao bing) and a sugared Chinese donut crisp (you tiao). The sugared you tiao crisps were so delicious that it was hard not to snack on all of them before they got placed on top of the cookies. When they come out of the oven, top with flakey salt to balance all the flavours.

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