Nian gao or Chinese New Year cake, cut into 1 inch x 0.5 inch cubes
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325C.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on high until it becomes pale and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in two increments and mix on slow, adding the second one when the first addition has been almost fully incorporated.
Once the dry ingredients have been incorporated, fold in the sprinkles with a rubber spatula. I prefer using Jimmies so the colours from the sprinkles don't 'bleed' into the dough.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out balls of cookie dough onto a plate.
Push a cube of the nian gao at the centre of each dough ball and use your hands to roll the dough so that the nian gao is no longer showing and the dough has evenly covered the rice cake.
Place the prepared dough balls with rice cake onto a baking sheet, with two inches between each dough ball, and bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown and the centre (where the rice cake is) has puffed up.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 20 - 30 minutes before eating. The rice cake centre develops more chew once it has cooled down a bit.