In preparation for our Chinese-themed dinner tomorrow (February 28), we decided to make fortune cookies.  First we wrote the fortunes. That was pretty fun.  My (Alex) favorite fortunes were: “Let sleeping dads sleep” and “Time to buy Alex a present.” My (Max) favorite fortune was: “Your fortune is in another fortune cookie.”

We typed them up and cut them into small strips of paper.

Our fortunes.

Then we made the cookies.  The recipe is easy, but its a lot of work to actually make them.  Plus you can only cook 3 at a time.

To make them, you separate the whites of 3 eggs and beat with sugar.  Then you add cooled, melted butter, vanilla, almond extract if you have it, water and a cup of flour.

Ingredients for fortune cookies

Beating egg whites and sugar.

Then you pour it into a circular shape three inches in diameter on a baking sheet.  We made stencils out of an old plastic lids to helps us get a good circle.  Making them out of something flat, like an old cutting board, is a better idea because the lip of the lid interferes with smoothing the batter into a circle

You cook them for 5 – 7 minutes and when they start to turn brown around the edges, you take them out of the oven.

Then you have to immediately lay the paper fortune in, fold one half over and bend over the edge of a cup to get the correct shape.  You let the cookies cool folded up inside muffin tins so they keep their shape. they get really crisp.

The result was pretty good, and they tasted a lot better than the ones we get from Chinese takeout.  (Dad loved the batter in particular–we had to send him out of the kitchen!)

Alex with the final product