The recipe for fortune cookies: they are not Chinese!

Crunchy and with a hidden message inside, fortune cookies aren’t actually Chinese. Let’s find out its history and recipe together.

Everyone, or at least most of those who ate at a Chinese restaurant, looked forward to the final moment when the fortune cookies were served. Crunchy and with a hidden message inside, they have always been considered a Chinese recipe but this is not the case. The origin of fortune cookies is to be found in Japan and you will be amazed by their history, as well as by their recipe!

How fortune cookies are made

1. To make the fortune cookie recipe, mix the egg whites and sugar in a bowl and beat with a whisk until creamy. You don’t have to whip them up.
2. Then add the oil , always stirring, and the vanilla essence.
3. Finally add the dry ingredients then the 00 flour , the rice flour and the corn starch .
4. Mix well, again with a whisk, then add a couple of tablespoons of water until you get a creamy, rather thick batter.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread a spoonful of batter, forming a 10 cm diameter and a few millimeters thick disc.
6. Bake the biscuits for 10 minutes at 170 ° C until the surface and the edge are golden.
7. While still warm, place a small card in the center of each one with the message you prefer, close it in a crescent shape and fold the two tips down (gently and being careful not to break them).
8. Place them on the edge of a cup and let them cool completely before taking them out and putting them in a bowl.

Since fortune cookies must be closed and folded when they are still hot , we advise you to bake a maximum of two or three at a time, so you will have plenty of time to proceed with the folding.

The variant of the decorated fortune cookies

If you have prepared and re-prepared these Chinese cookies many times for your diners and you want to raise the bar, then we can advise you to decorate the sweets. Making a decorated fortune cookie is not difficult at all, you just have to practice and have a light hand. Proceed with the classic recipe until the end, once the cookies are ready and at room temperature, take out your decorations. Today we want to spruce them up with delicious melted chocolate and some sugar decorations.

Melt the chocolate ( white and dark ) in two separate saucepans, in a bain-marie or in the microwave. At this point take the biscuits and, with a brush for sweets or a toothpick, decorate the sweets with chocolate and complete with the sprinkles of sugar, balls, edible hearts or sugars that you managed to find. Let them cool completely, maybe putting them in the fridge for about 30 minutes . If you want to make a decoration with double chocolate we advise you to make a first layer (for example with melted chocolate), let it solidify and then proceed by applying the white chocolate to your liking.

Perfect fortune treats: Primo Chef’s advice

Doing a good job and serving perfect fortune cookies, almost like those you buy at the supermarket, is not that difficult. The first golden rule is experience. So try to do some baking in advance, to understand how much to leave the cookies in the oven before folding, also depending on the power of your oven . For the realization of the form, however, try to be delicate. First, fold the biscuit in half and make the edges match as closely as possible, then while you fold the two ends creating the classic shape you can help yourself by pinching the center of the biscuit with a finger to make sure it is well centered.

As a last tip we want to focus on the second part of cooking: instead of inserting them in a cup of coffee you can also, if you prefer, place them in a special muffin pan so that the cake does not deform.

History of fortune cookies

It took six years before the Japanese researcher Yasuko Nakamachi managed to untie all the knots of the skein concerning the origin of these cookies. Much loved in the United States, fortune cookies arrived there during the migration period from China and Japan.

It was the early 1900s when the owner of the Tea Garden in San Francisco , an immigrant from Japan, offered his guests fortune cookies together with tea for the first time. They immediately became famous, thanks also to the singer David Jung, and in a short time the production increased.

During the Second World War, many Japanese were interned and then the production passed into the hands of the Chinese. Since then, fortune cookies have been attributed to them, but now you know the story is quite different.

If you liked this Japanese recipe, which became Chinese and then American, we suggest you also try the Cantonese rice : its history is very similar.