Name: Homemade Fortune Cookies
Cook time: 5 min
Yield: 16 fortune cookies
Ingredients: 2 egg whites from extra large eggs; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/2 cup all-purpose flour; 1/2 cup sugar; Handwritten fortunes (optional); 1 cup chocolate chips (optional); Sprinkles, for garnish (optional)

Homemade Fortune Cookies

Kelly Senyei
18 January 18, 2012
56 Comments

Homemade Fortune Cookies

Happy (almost) Chinese New Year! I’m ringing in the year of the Dragon with homemade fortune cookies dipped in chocolate and doused in sprinkles. These simple, crispy cookies are a fun and easy way to jazz up any dinner party since you have total freedom when it comes to the wild and wacky messages you include inside. The more personal (read: embarrassing or weird), the better.

I’ve always been a big believer in taking to heart the fortunes I find wrapped inside these post-meal treats. And I may or may not even carry select fortunes around in my wallet for years at a time. Of course proper fortune cookie etiquette states that you should always take and eat the cookie pointing closest in your direction. Call me superstitious, but a destiny-defining dessert isn’t something I take lightly.

Read on for the recipe and complete your Lunar bash with a few more of my favorite Chinese-inspired dishes:

Homemade Fortune Cookies

Cook: 5 minutes

Yield: 16 fortune cookies

Ingredients

2 egg whites from extra large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
Handwritten fortunes (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Sprinkles, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper or a Silpat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, vanilla, cinnamon, flour and sugar. The batter will be very loose.

Using a small spoon, scoop about 1 tablespoon of batter onto the lined cookie sheet. Use the back of the spoon to smooth the batter into a very thin circular layer. Repeat this process with additional batter to form two or three circles of batter on the cookie sheet. (See Kelly's Notes below.)

Bake the cookies for 5 to 7 minutes, or just until the edges of the cookies begin to brown.

Remove the cookies from the oven, place the handwritten fortunes in the centers of the cookies, and then use a flat spatula to very carefully release the cookie from the sheet tray. Fold it in half, then pinch the edges inward (as shown above) to create the fortune cookie shape. Continue this process with the remaining cookies, which will harden within 30 seconds of being formed.

As an optional garnish, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in 20-second intervals then dunk the hardened and cooled cookies into the chocolate. Immediately decorate the chocolate-dipped cookies with sprinkles and let harden.

Kelly's Notes:

It may seem tedious to only portion out one or two cookies per batch, but I found that trying to bake three or more cookies and shape them all before the last one completely hardened was difficult to do. Baking the cookies in batches of one or two guarantees you'll have enough time to fold them into the perfect fortune cookies.