Holiday Fortune Cookies

You know what this time of year means? Cookies! So many cookies. I could honestly forgo all other desserts if it meant platefuls of cookies.

And I got together with 50+ other bloggers (With The Speckled Palate leading us to victory) this week to celebrate just that. Cookies! Have you gotten the point yet? It’s all about the cookies. We even have a giveaway! Featuring a Kitchen Aid mixer! And a bunch of other goodies.

But before we rush into that, I bet you really want to know more about these fortune cookies. Because they’re aaaaamazing! And way different than what you’re used to on Christmas. They’re crunchy, sweet (but not too sweet), and, most importantly, fun. Plus you can make your own fortunes! Feel like predicting the future?

Fortune cookies are kind of like a really thin cake batter, formed into position and left to cool. And voila: the cookies get crunchy almost immediately with that ever-so-fun crack-able texture. The key is in the egg whites. The batter is really wet with a bunch of structural protein (the egg whites). In the oven, the water evaporates and the batter that seemed waaay too watery in the first place becomes more like a crepe. The egg whites denature and spread out creating a base structure holding some of the water in and complexing with the sugar.

When you take those steaming hot pancake-like cookies out of the oven, you work really fast and form a fortune cookie shape. Within almost 30 seconds, the cookies harden like crazy as they cool and the egg sets in structure and the fat and sugar solidifies. Time to dip those babies and chocolate and devour them!

Holiday Fortune Cookies

Holiday Fortune Cookies

Adapted from Martha Stewart

4 large egg whites

1 cup superfine sugar

1 cup flour

Pinch kosher salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon almond extract

For the decorating:

White chocolate

Dark chocolate coating pieces (if you use normal dark chocolate, you’ll have to temper it)

Festive sprinkles galore

What you’ll need:

Vinyl or latex gloves (first aid section of your grocery/drugstore)

Thin knit winter gloves

Muffin tins

Fortunes!

1. Preheat oven to 400⁰F. Find something that’s going to be as wide as you want your cookies to be. A 4 inch-wide circle will make a cookie that’s standard size (e.g. the lid of a Quaker oats container). A 5 inch-wide circle will make a cookie that’s more giant (the mouth of a smallish bowl perhaps).
2. In an electric mixer bowl, fitted with the whisk, beat the egg whites and sugar for 30 seconds on medium speed. Add the flour and salt, beat until combined. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat for approximately 30 seconds.
3. I think this next bit works best with individual sheets of parchment paper, so ignore the first shot of the batter circle. That was before I was a master! HA. Trace a couple of circles on parchment with pencil and cut them out, leaving at least 3 inches around it. Essentially roughly cut a square around the circle out. Don’t do more than 2 of these at a time, so just prepare 2 and work from there. (I would actually suggest doing one for the first couple of times to get the hang of it)
4. Fill the circles with batter (about 3/4 tablespoon, so 1 tablespoon that’s not scraped out) so that it’s pretty thin, but not so thin that it’s difficult to spread. You don’t have to worry about super-even batter coverage because it will even out in the oven. I think a small rubber spatula works best here, but if you have a small offset spatula, that would probably be perfect.
5. Bake the rounds of batter on a cookie sheet in the preheated oven for approximately 6 minutes (5 inch ones) or 5 minutes (4 inch ones). You’re looking for the cookies to turn a shade darker than golden brown on the outside. You can actually watch them turn color before your eyes which makes it easy to tell.
6. While you’re waiting for them to bake, put the knit gloves on followed by the latex/vinyl gloves. These will make it exponentially easier to form them.
7. Once done, work quickly and take the cookie sheet out of the oven. Drop the fortune on top of the cookie in the middle. Use either an offset spatula or a pie/cake server to slide the soft cookie off of the parchment paper. Pinch the ends of the cookie together at the top of the circle forming of a half circle around the fortune.
   

   

   

   

   

   On the edge of a large bowl, bend the cookie in the middle of the circle half so that the edges form down around the edge of the bowl. Forming a fortune cookie shape. Put the cookie in the cup of the muffin tin so that the shape is supported and cookie doesn’t unfold.

8. Repeat with the other still-warm cookie.
9. Use the rest of the batter until all of it is gone and the cookies are formed. Do not re-use the parchment paper pieces once grease starts to accumulate and crumbs start to stick. (Usually, you’re good for using them 3 times)
10. To decorate: dip the ends of the cookies (the butts) into melted chocolate. Shake off excess. Cover in sprinkles and let dry in a cool dry place. I always thought it would be better to dip the tips of the cookies in chocolate to keep the butt extra crunchy, but I’ve been told that it makes your fingers chocolatey. You decide!
11. These babies will keep for a couple of days in a sealed container, but they’re best within a day.

Shoutout to my mom for being my hand model, once again, while I was home for a short time during Thanksgiving! I always give her the most difficult jobs.

Okay now for the giveaway! And all of those other yummy recipes! You can follow along on social media with the hashtag #sweetestseasoncookies and The Speckled Palate has a full list of all of the recipes over here! We put together a pretty drool-worthy cookie baking prize package—The Sweetest Season’s Sweetest Cookie Giveaway!

row one: Wit Wisdom Food | Beth Cakes | Alyssa and Carla | The Rustic Willow | Chez Catey Lou | Joybilee Farm | Arousing Appetites | The Food in My Beard | Lizzy is Dizzy | Lemon Sugar

row two: The Speckled Palate | The Gift of Gab | think fruitful | Majorly Delicious | Sugar Dish Me | An Oregon Cottage | A Savory Feast | The Foodie Patootie | Twin Stripe | Hidden Fruits and Veggies

row three: Appeasing a Food Geek | DC Girl in Pearls | Bessie Bakes | Brunch with Joy | Cooking With Libby | 2 Cookin Mamas | Lou Lou Biscuit | Me and My Pink Mixer | Wetherills Say I Do | The Little Epicurean |

row four: The Emotional Baker | Cake ‘n Knife |  Glisten and Grace | Meredith Noelle | The Secret Ingredient [is love] | SammaSpot | Hey There Sunshine | Natasha Red Blog | Flavors & Sabores | Macheesmo

row five: Beer Girl Cooks | My California Roots | Butchers Niche | The Skinny Pot | Sustaining the Powers | Feast + West | Not Your Average Southern Belle | Vanilla And Bean | Our Life Inspired | That Square Plate

A whopping 51 bloggers teamed up to bring you an awesome cookie-centric giveaway! We picked out a stand mixer and other goodies to make baking this season go smoothly. And, a big thank you goes out to the generous sponsors who helped with The Sweetest Season by organizing, as well as providing products to the participating bloggers and donating some incredible prizes for our giveaway! Be sure to check out Imperial Sugar, Dixie Crystals, Bob’s Red Mill, Cabot Creamery and The Crumby Cupcake for lots of great recipe ideas. And check out Garnishing Co., who designed our graphics.

We’re giving away The Sweetest Cookie Prize Pack, and it is worth $690! See the Rafflecopter below to enter to win this amazing set of cookie baking goodies. The prize pack includes:

• One KitchenAid 5-Qt. Artisan Design Series Stand Mixer with Glass Bowl in Sugar Pearl Silver // $315 value
• One $50 Bob’s Red Mill gift card and one exclusive set of Bob’s Red Mill products: One 5-lb. bag Organic All Purpose Flour, one 5-lb. bag Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, one 40-oz. bag Almond Meal, one 28-oz. bag Sparkling Sugar, one 28-oz. bag Cane Sugar // $95 value
• Two 4-lb. bags of Imperial Sugar/Dixie Crystals granulated sugar, one My First Cookbook and a silicone baking mat // $50 value
• Coupons for $40 worth of Cabot Creamery products, including butter and yogurt // $40 value
• One OXO Good Grips 5-Quart Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl // $35 value
• One Jenaluca Stainless Steel Medium Cookie Scoop // $33 value
• One 2-piece Calphalon Nonstick Baking Sheet Set // $30 value
• One 10” x 15” Stainless Steel Metal Cooling Rack // $25 value
• One 7-piece OXO Good Grips Multi-colored Nesting Measuring Beaker Set // $20 value
• One GIR: Get It Right Ultimate Spatula in Gray // $19 value
• One 5-piece R & M Snowflake Cookie Cutter Set // $10 value
• One OXO Good Grips 11” Balloon Whisk // $10 value
• One OXO Good Grips Silicone Cookie Spatula // $8 value

Giveaway rules:

1. Enter the giveaway through the Rafflecopter widget below. Everyone gets a free entry! You can enter multiple times, up to 65 total entries by following the giveaway sponsors on social media. (If you’ve followed in the past, that counts! Just enter the information as prompted.) All entries will be verified. No purchase is necessary to win.
2. The giveaway is open until Saturday, December 19, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. CST. One winner will be chosen at random and e-mailed within 48 hours. Winners must claim prize within 48 hours of initial contact. The retail value of the prize is $690. Prizes listed above are the only ones available.
3. Open to U.S. residents with a valid shipping address only. Must be 18 years of age as of December 5, 2015.
4. To read all giveaway terms and conditions, visit the giveaway terms and conditions page or click the option in the Rafflecopter below to review them.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received free products from Imperial Sugar, Dixie Crystals and Bob’s Red Mill as part of The Sweetest Season Cookie Exchange. As always, all opinions and recipe are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that support Appeasing a Food Geek!