Cracking the cookie

Bits and pieces of wisdom are stored in the smallest of spaces, and one of the most popular places where we store them are in  fortune cookies.

In contrast to popular belief, fortune cookies are not of Chinese origin. According to infoplease.com, these cookies are actually an American invention.

Fortune cookies are sweet treats with little strips of paper containing a small fortune, or quotation, or phrase of wisdom  inside it. They are easy to make and making them opens opportunities for bonding among friends and family.

They also serve as snacks for various kinds of events and could even serve as ice breakers between strangers and would-be friends.

Baker’s bunch

Prepare an egg white, one eighth teaspoon of vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, one fourth cup of unbleached all-purpose flour, and one fourth cup of white sugar. One batch can make six fortune cookies.

Write down your desired fortunes on strips of paper, approximately four inches long and half an inch wide, you can roll them if you want to make them smaller. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk the egg white and the vanilla until it becomes foamy, not stiff. Sift the flour, sugar, and salt with the egg white mixture. Place teaspoonfuls of the batter on cookie sheets. Keep each teaspoonful at a distance from each other, around four to five inches. Then, tilt the sheet around to move the batter into round shapes. Make sure that the circles are as round and even as possible.

Do not bake too many on the same cookie sheet. You will have to fold each cookie at fast as possible while it is still hot to come up with its dented crescent moon shape.

It is advisable to start with only two or three circles at a time, just to see how many you can make. Bake the cookies for five minutes or until the pastry turns golden brown.

Quickly remove it from the oven, move the cookie with a wide spatula and place it upside down on a board. Put the fortune in the middle and then fold the cookie in half. Pull the two ends of the cookie together and hold it to its shape until it becomes firm. Do this for the rest of the cookies.

Things to consider

To save time, you can prepare two greased cookie sheets to make more cookies at one time. Grease the cookie sheets generously so that the pastries will not stick. When whisking the egg white and the vanilla, be wary to make the mixture foamy because if it is stiff, the batter will rise too much.

When baking your cookie, also pay close attention to the shape of the cookie. If the circle is too large, you will not be able to fold it. If it is too thin on the outside and thick on the inside, the outside will end up crispy and the inside will be soft and undercooked.

You also need to be in sync with time. You need to time the process properly because if the cookie has cooled, you will not be able to fold it into the proper shape.

Other suggestions

Fortune cookies can also be presented in more creative ways. Some people would put engagement rings inside the cookie to propose to their lover. Others would place Bible verses, dares, random lucky numbers, and the like inside the cookie.

You could also fold it in a variety of shapes to give your fortune cookie an edge over the regular cookies. Some people shape them into flowers, animals, or squares. You could also add in a bit of artificial coloring to make them more festive looking and attractive.

*recipe created based on a recipe from allrecipes.com