Chinese New Year is coming early this year! To kick off celebrations, I decided to make fortune cookies, but with a Filipino (Ube and Pandan) and Mexican (Cacao and Churro) twist.
Ironically, the origins of fortune cookies are blurry at best, and riddled with politics. Since my blog is about food and not about politics, I’ll skip the history debate.
In modern times, the fortune cookie has been seen as an icon of Chinese American restaurants, served with your check at the end of the meal. It gives everyone a chance to share what fortune they broke open that will either empower them for the rest of the day, or at the very least, be a source of a chuckle or two. Cue fighting over the bill.
I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the San Francisco Fortune Cookie Factory back in November to observe the ladies working to fold each fortune cookie by hand. I wouldn’t have realized the art and technique the folding process entailed until I made these. It is tedious, but the payoff is great. The cookies are absolutely buttery and packed with flavors of chocolate, cinnamon, ube and pandan. The satisfying crunch compliments the personalized messages which I printed out.
If you’re into group activities, this would make for a fun and unique activity to do together. But if you’d rather fly solo, these also make great presents to share with your friends and family (but NOT to replace the 红包 hóngbāo, which is a red envelope filled with money).
春节来了！ Spring Festival is coming!
Fortune Cookie, Four (Five) Flavors
Yield: 36 cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 7-8 minute baking time per batch* 48 minutes- 2 hours
Ingredients:
Basic batter*:
3 large egg whites*
¾ cup sugar
½ cup butter, melted
¼ tsp vanilla
3 tbsp water
5 oz all purpose flour
Instructions:
In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites on high until frothy, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle sugar a little at a time, continuing to beat on high until fully incorporated. Add vanilla, water and butter. Beat on high until well combined. Switch to medium speed and sprinkle flour a little at a time until you achieve a smooth batter.
Chocolate batter:
140 grams of batter
1 tsp cocoa powder
Instructions:
In a separate bowl, mix the basic batter and the cocoa powder together until well combined.
Churro batter:
140 grams of batter
½ tsp ground cinnamon
In a separate bowl, mix the basic batter and the cinnamon together until well combined.
Pandan batter:
140 grams of batter
1 ml pandan extract, more to taste (don’t exceed 2 ml)
In a separate bowl, mix the basic batter and the pandan extract together until well combined.
Ube batter:
140 grams of batter
1 ml, ube extract, more to taste (don’t exceed 2 ml)
Instructions:
In a separate bowl, mix the basic batter and the ube extract together until well combined.
To bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet and with a spatula or the back of a spoon, spread the batter thin and evenly in 3 inch diameter circles.*
Bake for 7-8 minutes* until the edge of the cookies turn golden.
Remove from the oven, take a strip of paper with a fortune on it and place on one side of your circle. Fold over gently, using a spatula and pick up edges with your fingers. Press the middle of the semi circle on the edge of a cup to form the fortune cookie shape. Place in a muffin tin to hold shape while cooling.*
NOTES:
*Just like anything, everyone has a learning curve. I started with a batch of two, just to get a feel for my oven and my comfort level of working with pressure. I wouldn’t go past baking 6 at a time, unless, of course, you are training for a fortune cookie baking marathon.
*I should say that I also had two baking sheets alternating in the oven, so I was able to prep the second baking sheet while the other one cooks.
*I should really say “five flavors” instead of “four” as four is an unlucky number. The Chinese word for four is 四 sì, which is also a homonym for death 死 sǐ. My basic batter is vanilla flavor, so that counts as the fifth one, yeah?
* Room temperature eggs fluff up better than cold ones.
* Batter spread on too thick will result in a pancake like consistency, which will break the cookie in half during the shaping process.
* I’ve found that the chocolate and churro flavor needed a full 8 minutes in the oven (and the ube and pandan only needed 7) to cook properly.
*I’ve found working an “assembly line” style works well. First I place all the fortunes on the cookies. After that, I fold all the cookies in half, before going back to the first one I folded and pressing each of the cookies on the edge of a cup in order. This achieves a few things: (1) less burned fingers and (2) your cookies have a chance to get accustomed to one shape before it needs to be shaped in another.
Inspired by: https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/fortune-cookies/
Hey It's Jen Lou 