It’s usually cold, bleak and miserable around the middle of January, and most of us are just looking for an excuse to throw a party or a tantrum – one of the two.
Conveniently, Jan. 23 is the start of the Chinese New Year, the year of the dragon. Time to order up some pineapple chicken and party down! But before you do, you may want to try this recipe for your very own: personalized fortune cookies. They taste far better than the cardboard-flavoured ones that come with your take-out.
Prepare your fortunes first. Use quotes, inspirational messages or pure comedy; whatever you like. Have them ready as your cookies come out of the oven. You gotta work fast!
Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F) and get out your trusty mixing bowl and spatula.
The cookie:
3 egg whites
175 ml (¾ cup) white sugar
125 ml (½ cup) melted butter (cooled)
15 ml (3 tsp) spiced rum
30 ml (2 tbsp) water
250 ml (1 cup) all purpose flour
Beat the egg whites and sugar for about two minutes until they’re frothy. Not fluffy, just frothy. Add the butter, rum and water. Mix well. Add the flour last and mix until the batter is smooth. It should be about the consistency of pancake batter.
Here’s where it gets a little tricky. Grab a non-stick cookie sheet, a teaspoon, a teacup and a muffin tin.
Start by making only two cookies at a time. This is serious business, here. They cool and get crisp very quickly. If they get crisp before you get a fortune inside, you’ll just have to eat them and try again. Confucius says, “That’s the way the cookie crumbles”.
Use about half a teaspoon of batter for each cookie and spread it out very thinly to a diameter of 7-8 cm (three inches). Only half a teaspoon of batter won’t look like enough, but it is.
Bake two cookies at a time for about seven minutes until the edges are golden brown.
Now, this is when you must develop powers of super-speed. The second you take those cookies out of the oven, use a metal spatula to lift one, slap a fortune in the centre and fold the cookie up over it. Press it over the edge of the teacup to get that magical fortune cookie shape. Pop it into the muffin tin to keep it from springing apart.
Treat the burns on your fingertips and repeat the process 18 more times. Make these for your Chinese New Year party and nobody will even complain that you chose Big Trouble in Little China for the movie!
Photo: Fortune cookies hand-made by Connolly Tate in preparation of the upcoming Chinese New Year.
