Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Valentine Fortune Cookies

Since Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year coincide this year, I thought that it would be fun to make Valentine's fortune cookies for party favors.  I made these once before, many years ago.  As I got into the process I recalled, "Oh, right, these were a real pain in the a** to make."  I perservered and came up with a reasonable product.  They are much like pancakes-the further you get into the batch,
the better they seem to get. 
Fortune Cookies

5 T butter, melted
4 egg whites
1 c sugar
1 c flour
3 T cream
1 t almond extract

-combine egg whites and sugar, beat until fluffy
-add flour, butter, cream and almond
-stir until well combined
-spread 1 T of batter into a 5 inch circle on sprayed baking sheet (you can get 2 on a sheet)
-bake at 400 for 8 min
The batter is pretty basic, a bit sticky, a bit thick.
Spreading them onto the baking sheet seems to be the key to getting good results, and I obviously haven't mastered that yet.  Mine tend to be a bit doughy in the middle and crispy on the edges.  Slide a narrow spatula under them when they are fresh out of the oven, then work quickly to shape and fill before they cool too much.  I feel like I could use a little more finesse in the shaping department too.  Perhaps I should stick to pies!
I got my silly verses from an old Valentine book, but you could use poetry lines or pen your own.
The finished product looks pretty good despite all the hassle, and is much tastier than the pre-packaged kind.
I tied mine up in festive bags and sent them home with my guests as party favors.

3 comments:

  1. Fascinating discussion on a recent Splendid Table about how fortune cookies came to the US from Japan (!). During WW 2 when the Japanese in CA were interred, Chinese people took up making them. Yours look just like they described the original cookies which are still made in Japan today.
    (Still snowed in in VA - keep the fun ideas coming. I'm making your baked french toast for tomorrow morning...)
    XO, L

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  2. I did hear that on the ST.....love that show!
    I wish I were snowed in with you. The french toast should get you through a couple more days. Steve and I had the last of it for breakfast today (with half and half-oh yeah).

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