Fortune Cookies 1

Try your hand at making homemade Chinese fortune cookies. You can change the color of the cookies by adding a drop of food coloring with the liquid ingredients. Also, it is easier to handle hot cookies if you wear cotton gloves.

Recipe Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Pinch salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 2 to 3 drops of almond extract
3 tablespoons water

Cooking Directions:

1. Print or type fortunes on large sheet of paper, then cut them into 3/4-inch strips no more than 3 1/2-inches wide. Use ink that won't bleed or run if the paper gets a little oily.
2. Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Grease foil with butter, margarine or nonstick spray. Have a muffin tin handy.
3. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Add liquid ingredients and stir until the batter is smooth.
5. Drop batter by level teaspoon (no more) onto prepared cookie sheet, no more than 6 to a sheet. Spread each evenly to 4-inch diameter.
6. Set cookie sheet in the oven; bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cookies begin to brown lightly.
7. Remove from the oven and immediately remove 1 cookie with a broad spatula.
8. Place a fortune in the center, fold in half and press back against ledge of counter or muffin pan to form fortune cookie shape.
9. Set cookies in muffin tin to keep their shape until cool.
10. Continue with the rest of the cookies, remembering they harden rapidly. If the cookies become too brittle to fold, return to oven for 2 to 3 minutes and try again.
11. Repeat process with remaining batter.

Makes 20 fortune cookies.