I knew this recipe would be a difficult one. I just wasn’t sure how difficult it would be. First of all, I switched out the pomegranate juice for cranberry pomegranate juice because that is all I could find. I’m not sure whether this changed the thickness of the batter. If it did, that may have led to some of the problems I had.
When I started baking the cookies, I had no idea what they should look like when finished. I knew the edges should be light brown, but I wasn’t sure how the centers should look. I started baking them for 5 minutes, which wasn’t long enough. I found that they worked best when they cooked for 7 minutes. I also used wax paper, and I had difficulties when the cookies were poured on the waxed side. They came off easier from the nonwaxed side. I baked them two at a time, which took a lot longer than expected.
As soon as I took the cookies out of the oven, I tried to take them off the wax paper, and sometimes they came off cleanly. Other times, I ripped the wax paper—and the cookie—trying to get the cookie off. The folding wasn’t too difficult, but the cookies had to be just perfect to fold. If they already were hard on the edge, they just crumbled.
Overall, I would give this recipe three stars out of five. It’s a long process since you can cook only two at a time, and the success rate for me was about 50 percent. But the cookies that did turn out looked great, and I felt pretty cool saying that I made fortune cookies—even if I did forget to put the fortunes in the middle.
Make your own
INGREDIENTS
3 egg whites
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons pomegranate juice
Red food coloring (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While it is preheating, fill out fortunes on small pieces of paper. Then line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat.
In a large mixing bowl, whip together egg whites and sugar with an electric beater on high until frothy, about 2 minutes. Then add in melted butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Add in flour and mix well. Then add in pomegranate juice 1 tablespoon at a time until your batter is thick and fluid. Add food coloring if desired.
Spoon a tablespoon of the batter into two circles on the baking sheet. Use the back of a spoon to spread the batter out very thin. Don’t do more than two at a time as they harden quickly once you take them out of the oven and can be tricky to mold.
Bake for 5 to 7 minutes until the edges begin to brown. Quickly remove the cookies from the baking sheet one at a time and place a fortune in the center. Fold the cookie in half and then fold the ends together to form the fortune cookie. Cool in a muffin tin to hold shape. Repeat with the remaining batter.
RECIPE SOURCE
Amy Kritzer of whatjewwannaeat.com