Hi Guys! Do any of you have weird childhood snacks that have stuck with you all these years? I do. When my sister and I were little we were (and still sort of are) obsessed with Yan-Yans; her with the strawberry and me with chocolate, always and always. Every time we went to the Asian market with our mom, we knew we’d each be walking out of the store holding a container of yan-yans…oh the good old days. :) If you know what yan-yans are you’re cool and I like you….if you don’t, its okay…just think “dunkaroos” but replace the kangaroo cookies with yummy biscuit sticks and add two more frosting flavors and mulitple the awesomeness by 20. That’s it.
Anyway, yan-yans are totally awesome and these homemade versions are super simple to make! I should warn that each frosting recipe makes quite a lot of frosting so you may want to scale back on each or just make one flavor. The consistency is thinner than regular frosting to make the sticks easy to dip, but you could always thicken it up with a bit more powdered sugar and have some really great strawberry, chocolate and vanilla-bean frostings for your baked goods too! Oh yan-yans, I love you…and I totally hope you all love them too! xx Jenny
Some other treats you might also enjoy:
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Homemade Yan-Yans with a Trio of Frosting
INGREDIENTS
yan-yan crackers
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 ½ teaspoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup water
strawberry frosting
- ¼ pound fresh strawberries, cleaned and hulled
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 ½ to 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
chocolate frosting
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 ½ to 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- ½ to ¾ cup melted semisweet chocolate
- 2 to 3 tablespoons cream
vanilla-bean frosting
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- ½ vanilla bean
- 1 ½ to 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 3 to 4 tablespoons cream
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Place flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse 4 times.
- Add butter and pulse until a mealy/grainy texture forms.
- Gradually add water, while pulsing, until all the water has been added and a smooth dough has formed.
- Form the dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.
- Roll chilled dough onto a lightly flours surface until about 1/8 inch thin.
- Cut 3” x ¼” strips from the dough and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the sticks just begin to brown on the edges. Allow to cool completely.
- strawberry frosting: Place strawberries, lemon juice and sugar into a food processor and puree until smooth. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer cream butter. Add ½ cup powdered sugar followed by ½ the strawberry puree Add another ½ cup of powdered sugar followed by the remaining puree. Continue adding powdered sugar until a “dippable” consistency has been achieved.
- chocolate frosting: Cream butter. Add ½ cup powdered sugar followed by the melted chocolate (make sure the chocolate is no longer hot) and cream together. Add the remaining sugar and cream until a “dippable” consistency has been achieved.
- vanilla-bean frosting: Cream butter. Add ½ cup powdered sugar followed by the caviar of the vanilla bean (reserve vanilla bean itself for another use). Add remaining powdered sugar and cream until a “dippable” consistency has been achieved.
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Cool! Do you have to use a food processor for the dough?
I live in the Philippines and I grew up eating Yan Yans. Meiji makes the cutest snacks ever. Your take on them is ♥♥♥.
Hi! So I finally tried this recipe today for a potluck. I doubled-up on the yan-yan crackers – glad I didn’t because they’re so tasty just on their own! The dips were hit & miss for me. Chocolate dip was the best – I used Ghiradelli’s semi-sweet. Vanilla was ok – I didn’t have vanilla bean, so I used good vanilla extract, but there was still a distinct raw butter taste. But the strawberry was an epic fail for me, which was super sad because strawberry yan-yans are my fave. I couldn’t get the “dip” consistency without a ton of powdered sugar because the strawberry/lemon puree was so watery. In the end, it tasted unedibly sweet and the strawberry flavor was gone. Any tips as to what I did wrong?
All in all a great recipe! Would make again with the chocolate dip. And I”ll definitely be re-using the yan-yan recipe for just making crackers! =)
Thank you for the recipe! It’s pretty similar to Pocky and I was always curious how they are creating those ‘sticks’ – now I can make my own ones. :)
Thanks for sharing! This was my favorite treat as a kid, now I can make them!