What Good Fortune!

Remember way back when… we were celebrating Chinese New Year. Well, what is better for dessert than a fortune cookie? These are not for the faint of heart. These were so fun to make, but took attention to time and hands of asbestos. Superfine vanilla sugar? Well… I had some sugar that had old vanilla beans in it, so I used the blender on it. It wasn’t superfine, but it certainly was less chunky. Also, don’t be all smart and try to combine the super cold milk and melted butter… guess what cold milk does to butter? Solidifies it. Oops.
Folding these little guys can be tough; this is where I got the recipe: http://www.foodmayhem.com/2010/01/fortune-cookies-wth-love.html there is a video, do yourself a favor and watch it. Also don’t stress. It took me until halfway through to finally figure it out, then it was fun.

Fortune Cookies
Makes approximately 25
What you need!
4 egg whites
1 cup superfine vanilla sugar
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
5 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and lightly cooled
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
Messages (about 2.5″ x 0.25″ each )

What to do!
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Put silpat on baking sheet.
2. In a stand mixer, beat together egg whites and sugar on medium for 30 seconds. Add flour and salt and beat till combined. Add butter, heavy cream, and almond extract. Beat until smooth.
3. Use a 4.5″ circle ring to spread a little less than 1 tablespoon of batter into a circle on the silpat. It’s very thin. (After a few trials, I found that baking 3 at a time was ideal.)
4. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 5 minutes, turning once in the middle, until edges are golden and center is set but pale.
5. When you remove from the oven, immediately remove one with a spatula to a clean towel. Fold into fortune cookie with message inside. See video. Remove next one and fold, then the next one. You’ll have to move relatively quickly before they cool too much to be bendable. That’s why I recommend three at a time.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you finish that batter.
7. Cool cookies completely and store in airtight containers for a week