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Fortune Cookies

Source of Recipe

Marla


Recipe Introduction

The fortune cookie, that inevitable end to a "Chinese" dinner in the United States, is no more Chinese than chop suey--another American invention. The fortune cookie made its debut in California in the early 1900s, a creation apparently inspired by a story from 12th-century Chinese history. According to popular legend, Chinese monks leading the resistance against invading Mongols passed messages among their numbers through slips of paper baked into "moon cakes," pastries made of nuts, beans, and dates. The traditional palate cleanser in most Chinese-American restaurants prior to the 1940s was the almond cake or cookie, until someone came up with the idea for a cheaper but more entertaining cookie. The inventor was either an LA-based restaurateur named David Jung, who thought the messages in his cookies would cheer the local homeless, or a Bay Area Japanese-American, Makota Hagiwara, the caretaker of San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden restaurant. The cookies remained a local treat until the '40s and '50s when the real rise of Chinese-American cuisine began with servicemen returning from WWII, bringing with them a taste for more exotic foods.

List of Ingredients

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn oil

2 egg whites

1 tablespoon orange flower water

1/2 teaspoon orange rind, finely grated

12 to 16 fortunes, on 1/2- x 3-inch paper strips




Recipe

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, and sugar three times to mix thoroughly, and place

in a mixing bowl. Add the oil and egg whites, beating at a high speed to mix thoroughly. Add

the orange flower water and orange rind, and mix well.

Make just 2 or 3 cookies at a time, dropping the batter by level tablespoons onto a

well-greased cookie sheet. Space the cookies about three inches apart. Flatten each cookie with

the back of a spoon or spatula until the cookie is about 4 inches wide. Bake in a 325° oven 10

to 12 minutes until the cookies are a light golden brown.

With a wide spatula remove the first cookie from the cookie sheet. Immediately place a

fortune in the center, and fold it over to make a half-moon shape. Create a second fold by

drawing the center of the folded cookie, folded side down, across a thin-edged bowl or pan and

crease the cookie in half again. Then place the filled and folded cookie in a muffin pan,

pointed ends down, until it is cool and firm to the touch.

Use the remaining batter to bake and shape the remaining cookies. When they are all

cooled, store the fortune cookies in an airtight container. Makes 12 to 16 cookies.