Blessing Cookies (Fortune Cookies) for Chinese New Year

These blessing cookies (aka fortune cookies) are fantastic as snacks enjoyed during the Chinese New Year as an alternative to the traditional butter cookies, that are often presented to relatives and friends. You can place your hand-written blessing notes inside. What a meaningful gift to your loved ones.

Blessing Cookies (Printable recipe)
By Christine's Recipes
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Yield: Makes 24

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 30 gm vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extra
• 1 Tbsp water
• 50 gm caster sugar
• 60 gm plain flour/all purpose flour
• 1½ Tbsp cornflour
• 1/8 tsp salt

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180C/356F.
• In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the egg whites, oil, vanilla extract, sugar and water until the sugar is completed dissolved, and the mixture becomes frothy, yet not stiff.
• Sift in the flour, cornflour (cornstarch), and salt into the egg white mixture. Combine well until you get a smooth batter, that can easily drop off a balloon whisk or wooden spoon.
• Place two spoonful of batter onto a baking paper. Use the bottom of the tablespoon to spread the batter around until each forms into a circle 8cm in diameter. Bake in the preheated oven until the edge of each cookie turns golden brown, about 6 to 7 minutes. Carefully remove with a spatula. Quickly place a blessing note in the middle of a cookie. Fold the cookie in half. Place the bottom of the cookie onto the rim of a mug, glass or wooden spoon, and pull the edges downward to form a blessing cookie. Transfer into the hole of a small muffin tin so that it keeps its shape while cooling down. Repeat this step with the rest of the batter.

Notes:

• Tip on spreading the batter into even circles: You can use an 8cm-sized cookie cutter as a guide and draw two circles on the baking paper beforehand. Turn the baking paper over to the other side. Then you can place and spread the spoonful batter on it at ease.
• Billy Law, a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011, has drawn some pictures, clearly showing how to fold a fortune cookie.
• As for the blessing note: You might be interested in knowing how my notes look like. You might download my blessing notes in order to have a close look, or take it as an example, then fill in any words you like.