Method :
- Preheat the oven to
moderate 180oC.
- Line an oven tray with
baking paper.
- Draw 3 circles with 8cm
diameter on the paper.
- Place the egg whites in a
medium bowl and whisk until just frothy.
- Add the icing sugar and
butter and stir until smooth.
- Add the flour and mix
until smooth.
- Let stand for 15 minutes.
- Using a flat-bladed knife,
spread 1 1/2 level teaspoons of mixture over each circle.
- Bake for 5 minutes or
until slightly brown around the edges.
- Working quickly, remove
the cookies from the tray by sliding a flat-bladed knife under
each.
- Place a written fortune
message on each cookie.
- Fold the cookie in half to
form a semicircle, then fold it again over a blunt-edged object
like the rim of a glass.
- Allow to cool on a wire
rack.
- Repeat with the remaining
mixture.
- Cook no more than 2 or 3
cookies at a time, otherwise they will harden too quickly and
break when folding.
Note :
The history of
fortune cookies dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries when China was
occupied by the Mongols.
The traditional
lotus nut paste moon cakes were used in which to hide secret messages
regarding the date of a popular uprising against the invaders. The moon
cakes were distributed by the patriotic revolutionary Chu Yuan Chang
(disguised as a Taoist priest) who was safe in the knowledge that the
Mongols had no taste for lotus nut paste. The uprising was successful and
so the basis of the Ming Dynasty was formed.
The transition
from moon cakes to modern-day fortune cookies was born out of necessity in
the hard days of the American gold rush and the railway boom. When the
Chinese 69'ers were building the great American railways through the
Sierra Nevada to California they put happy messages inside biscuits to
exchange at the moon festival instead of cakes, and so fortune cookies
began.
A cottage industry
emerged as the Chinese settled in San Francisco and until 1964 (when the
first automated production started) they were made by hand.
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