Fortune Cookies in Gourmet Flavours (17th October)

        So one weekend I thought to myself 'I want to make my own fortune cookies' - and so I did. In my younger years I went through a fortune cookie phase where I easily ate my way through boxes and boxes of fortune cookies. There's something about fortune cookies that makes them better than regular cookies. You also get the novelty of having to break it open to take out the small slip of paper that had the power to tell you your fortune ;). You can see what wiki says about fortune cookies.

        This is a little gem of a book which I bought cheaply from 'Lifetime Distributors' at my last workplace. It really has come in handy as I've used a fair few recipes from it, like my double choc chip chilli cookies that I've blogged about. Before I started I quickly hopped online and googled some fortune cookie sayings for my cookies. If I had pre-planned I could have got some nice and inspirational sayings rather than random generic ones. I just printed them out and cut them into strips.

I love how the batter is made of such few ingredients.

Recipe (adapted from Women's Weekly - Cookies)

• 2 egg whites
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1/3 cup plain flour
• 30g butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon flavouring/essence of your choice - optional
• Small paper messages

        Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually beat in the sugar, making sure the sugar has dissolved between each addition. Fold in the sifted flour and butter and any flavourings you will be adding.

        I decided that I wanted to have 3 different flavoured cookies so instead of folding in the flavours together with the flour I left them out and added them into the batter once I split the mix into 3. I think I may have been a little light handed with the flavours as they were only faintly noticeable. Will have to add more next time.

        Now comes the hard fun part. Line a baking tray and, if you don't feel confident about circles, draw two circles on the baking paper to use as a guide. Even though the recipe does recommend that you only make 2 at a time, I was a bit ambitious and try to do 3 at a time. If I were you I'd stick to 2 at a time.

        Drop tablespoons of batter into the middle of the circle and spread out evenly with the back of the spoon. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees celcius (gas, fan forced oven) for 5 minutes or until gold around the edges.

        ***Edit*** I also should have added that you should use 2 baking trays so that while you're folding and shaping and then respreading the batter there is one tray in the oven cooking, ready to be switched over as soon as the cookies are done. As you're only baking 2 cookies at a time, you'll need to set aside a few hours to make a batch of these cookies. I spent all Sunday morning in the kitchen and only produced one bowl of cookies - approximately 25.

        Once you pull the tray out of the oven, there really is no time to lose (or take photos). Quickly loosen the cookies from the tray and pop a fortune slip in the middle of the circle and fold over pressing down the edges to help seal the cookie and then gently bend the cookie to make an indent in the middle of the semi circle. If you do this over the edge of a cup or bowl it helps to keep hold the cookie in shape while it cools and hardens. Cool on a wire rack.

        Fortune cookies are pretty much a version of the tuile. They are a little tricky to handle especially if it's your first time. I've made tuiles before but have been too slow to shape them so can't say I'm any good at it. My finger tips are also ultra sensative which makes it hard to handle the cookies straight out of the oven.

        You also need to make sure that you spread the batter out thinly and evenly or else they end up on the slightly chewy side - which was how mine were but they were tasty enough for people to overlook it. One complaint was that the papers got wedged into the cookie, a suggestion was maybe edible paper for the fortunes - good idea!

        I made these all while Mum was out of the house and when she came home and saw the bowl on the kitchen counter she asked 'Did you make them or buy them?'. My response to her question was 'What do you think Mum?', my sister just looked at her and laughed. When have I ever went and bought biscuits home? And display them nicely in a bowl and claim them as my own too. Oh mother... =D