Giant Homemade Fortune Cookies

This was first posted at Design Mom back in January as a guest post but I'm reposting it today while we're taking off on vacation today--that's allowed right? Just once or twice?

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These giant fortune cookies are one of my favorite treats to make, they're a romantic and cute way to finish off a meal--or a fun way to celebrate a birthday, with sweet predictions for the coming year tucked inside.

Writing the fortune is half the fun, use your creativity to come up with a real gem but if you're still stuck then try a joke or a riddle. Put it on some pretty red paper and make the cookies.

Here's the recipe:

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
dash of salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, combine the egg whites and sugar then beat for half a minute on medium speed. Add the flour and the salt then beat to combine. Add the butter, cream and extract then beat to combine for another half a minute.

For each cookie, pour three or four tablespoons of the batter onto a well greased cookie sheet and spread the batter with the back of the spoon into a thin three or four-inch circle, the cookies will spread significantly while baking so be sure to give them plenty of room--I bake four to a sheet usually. Bake until the edges are golden, about ten to twelve minutes, but try to get them as golden as possible because if you undercook them they won't harden properly later.

When the cookies come out you must work quickly to pull the cookie off of the hot sheet with a spatula. Lift it and put it on a towel. Fold the cookie in half, pinching it at the top of form a shape like a hard taco shell (see picture at right). Then turn it upside down and bring both ends up towards each to form the shape of a fortune cookie (see picture at left). It helps to push gently at the fold while folding it.

You have to complete this process in about half a minute or you'll never be able to refold it once it hardens. Repeat the folding process with each of the remaining cookies (it makes about ten) and thread your handmade fortunes through the finished cookies.

Some tips: if your cookie circle is irregularly shaped don't panic because the folding process helps it look better and you can gently trim the edges if necessary before you start folding it and the whole thing hardens. Also, I would recommend making a few more than you'll need because there are always a few in each batch that get destroyed and never make it to the table (too bad, right?)

Fun and delicious (they taste much better than the store bought varieties!)

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For other great cookie recipes see the following:

Snicker Cookies
Praline Cookies
Congo Squares

Technorati tags: Easter, holidays, cookies