Since teaming up with our friends at Mental_Floss last year to produce printable, trivia-packed party kits, we have had lots of fun introducing download-it-yourself gift tags, cheese tags, and holiday cards, available to you for FREE! For Valentine’s Day, we took this DIY assortment to the next level with Printable Valentine’s Day Fortune Cookies.
The concept is sweet and simple: You print the cookie shapes and fortune strips, follow the included instructions for origami-style folding and filling, and add a dab of glue to finish. The download is complete with four pre-written fortunes that range from romantic to racy, and four blank strips for you to fill in a message for your Valentine.
Given that I generally view the world through my stomach, it didn’t take long before I decided that homemade fortune cookies would be part of my immediate future.
However, I’m shy when it comes to baking. As someone who likes to be bold in the kitchen, baking makes me feel limited to the point of frustration. I always forget to sift flour and I almost always need to leave out one ingredient that’s missing from my pantry. Plus, I’ve had too many bad experiences with creating a flurry of dough around my kitchen after losing control of hand mixers. So I searched Pinterest for easy recipes for baking dummies. I found that the technique itself is consistent, but the ingredients vary. Martha Stewart uses butter and cream, the Desserts with Benefits blogger makes them vegan and gluten-free, and the majority of the other recipes are split between using almond extract and vanilla extract.
I decided to follow this recipe from Della Gossett, the executive pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago Beverly Hills. Not only is it complete with a detailed 5-minute-long video (which you can find at the bottom of this post), but this is also the only recipe I found that didn’t require a hand mixer! #Winning
You don’t need a fortune (or me) to tell you that you got this.
Homemade Fortune Cookies
Paraphrased from Della Gossett, via PopSugar.com
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup rice flour (For crispiness)
2 teaspoons cornstarch (I left this out, but I found that my cookies weren’t as crisp the next day)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
4 egg whites
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Materials:
2 mixing bowls
1 whisk
1 muffin tin
1 mixing spoon or rubber spatula
1 spoon
1 thin spatula
Valentine’s Day Fortune Cookie prints, with fortune strips cut out (Don’t forget to fill in the blank strips!)
*Before you begin, I highly recommend watching the video below for visual tips on the batter’s consistency and the proper folding technique
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In one bowl, whisk together the flour, rice flour, salt, sugar, and cornstarch (if leaving out , see note above).
In the other bowl, whisk together the egg whites until frothy.
Step 2
Create a well in the middle of the dry ingredients (ideally, your well won’t flood like mine did, as pictured below). Pour the oil, water, and vanilla extract into the center. Use your mixing spoon or spatula to stir the wet ingredients. Stir like you’re creating a whirlwind, starting in the center and expanding out to incorporate the dry ingredients along the sides of the bowl. Stir until all the dry ingredients are well blended. The batter will be dry and lumpy.
Step 3
Pour half of the egg whites into the dry ingredients. Mix well with to break up any lumps. When smooth, pour in the remaining egg whites and mix until smooth.
Step 4
Spoon the batter about the size of a quarter onto a nonstick baking sheet or parchment paper. Chef Gossett recommends leaving about 3 inches of space in between each spoonful. I recommend only trying 3 or 4 spoonfuls in the first round to test for thickness and size.
Using the back of a spoon, spread the batter in a circular motion outward to make it as thin as possible without creating holes in the batter, like you’re making a crepe. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the edges brown. I found the sweet spot to be 9 minutes.
Step 5
Now this is where you have to move FAST. Keep your fortune strips close by. Remove from oven and with a thin spatula, quickly scrape the fortune circles off the nonstick sheet and flip them over. This will make it easier to fold your cookie into its famous shape.
Step 6
Quickly place your fortune in the center of the cookie and fold the cookie in half like a taco. Crease the middle of the cookie on the edge of a mug to shape (you can also use the edge your hot pan). It should hang over the edge of the mug like a shrimp cocktail.
Yeah, you will.
Step 7
Place the folded fortune cookies into a muffin pan to cool so they will maintain shape.
Repeat steps 4-7. Store in an airtight container and enjoy!
Video via PopSugar.com
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