“They’re really not difficult, and they’re a million times better than the restaurant ones.”
— Molly Yeh
If you don’t know by now, I am a big fan of Girl Meets Farm/Molly yeh. I was watching one of the episodes from season two that is dedicated to Chinese New Year, and Molly makes fortune cookies with her sisters. I watched twice scene TWICE before making the cookies. It really looks very simple. Alas, only 4 out of 12 cookies turned out to make the shape (and still two of those suffered serious cracks).
Let’s discuss, shall we?
I want to reiterate that I watched Molly make these twice before following the recipe exactly as written. I had three people attempting to help me shape into the muffin tins as soon as these came out of the oven, I knew when it took almost double the time to bake the cookies, that they were going to be too thick. I believe this was 100% my problem with this recipe.
Now, the batter looked exactly as it did in her episode. It was fairly runny for a cookie dough/batter. I have a set of different size circle cookie cutters (or biscuit, what every you need to cut into a circle), and there is a 2.9″ and 3.2″ circle. Molly said to use the 3″ mason jar lid as a guide, so I went with the 2.9.” I believe if I went with the 3.2″ the cookies may have not been as thick. Very hard to know if this could have been the problem.
Why was the thickness a problem? The cookies were impossible to shape correctly because of the thickness in the center.
One other problem that could have occurred, is that I put the batter on a silpat mat on a cookie sheet. Molly greased a half or quarter sheet (no parchment nor foil) and placed the batter directly on the pan. Not sure if the silpat caused the cookies to need to bake longer, and remain thick instead of spreading.
The actual batter came together very easily. Once these cookies come out of the oven they are HOT, so attempting to shape them as quickly as possible can be a little painful on the finger tips. They cook in no time, and the ingredients are easy to find.
For two of the fortune cookies I created a matcha swirl in the batter. This did not change the consistency of the batter nor texture from the other fortune cookies. So feel free to add a matcha swirl! I was impressed by heart imprints on these fortune cookies.
I definitely encourage anyone attempting to make their own fortune cookies. They taste 100% better than the styrofoam-like fortune cookies you can find in most restaurants.
Happy baking!
Fortune Cookie Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/2 c all-purpose flour*
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 pinch of cardamom
- 2 egg whites
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 12 strips of paper with fortunes
- *for a gluten free option, you can use almond flour instead. You may need to bake them for a minute or two longer.
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 375.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg whites and extracts. Sift in the dry ingredients and whisk it… whisk it good, until you have a smooth batter.
Grease a cookie sheet and then spread a tablespoon of batter into a 3-inch circle (it helps to use the lid of a ball jar as a guide). Only bake three circles at a time so that you have time to mold the cookies before they cool.
Bake for 5-7 minutes, until the edges are brown. Working quickly (but carefully, as to not burn your fingers), use a spatula to flip a circle over. Place a fortune in the center, fold the circle in half, and then pick it up and bend the folded side over the edge of a bowl to form your fortune cookie shape.
Place in a muffin tin so that the shape holds while it cools.
Repeat with remaining circles, and then bake another batch.
Let me know how the recipe turned out for you in the comments below!
Trial & Eggs 