Chinese Fortune Cookies

Recipe~ Courtesy Martin Yan

Ingredients~
1 cup flour
1 egg - lightly eaten
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract - optional
1 cup water -- lukewarm

Method~
Combine all ingredients and let stand for 15 minutes.
Heat a Chinese or Scandinavian krumkake iron over the range to medium-high heat.
Pour 1 tablespoon batter in centre of the iron.
Cook 3 - 31/2 minutes on each side, or until mixture is golden brown.
Immediately remove flattened cookie, insert a fortune, and fold in half to form a half-circle.
Slowly fold to form a fortune cookie.

Remarks~
Don't forget the fortunes.
Keep them handy and insert immediately into cookies while they are still hot and pliable.

Giant Fortune Cookies Nonstick cooking spray
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large egg whites
1 cup superfine sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon almond extract

Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a cookie sheet liberally with cooking spray.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar and beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt and beat until combined. Add butter, heavy cream and almond extract and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.

Pour 1 tablespoon batter onto half of the baking sheet, and spread with the back of the spoon into a thin 5-inch circle; repeat on the other half of the sheet. Bake until the edges turn golden brown, about 8 minutes.

Transfer baking sheet to a heat-resistant surface. Working as quickly as possible, slide a spatula (an offset spatula, available at specialty kitchen shops, works best) under one cookie. Place it on a clean kitchen towel.

Using your fingers, fold cookie loosely in half, pinching the top together to form a taco shape. Insert your index fingers into each open end, and press your thumbs gently into the center of the folded edge while bringing the two open ends toward each other, forming the shape of a fortune cookie. This whole process should take about 10 seconds. Once the cookie hardens, which begins to happen almost immediately, you cannot fold it.

Place the cookie on the kitchen towel to cool and shape the second cookie. Repeat until all the batter is used up. To avoid wasting batter, try the shaping process with a circle of paper first.

Write out fortunes on strips of paper, and thread through the cooled cookies.

Makes 15. Prep time: 15 minutes. Baking time: 8 minutes per batch.

Per serving: 56 calories; 2.2 g fat (1.3 g saturated fat; 35 percent calories from fat); 8.3 g carbohydrates, 6 mg cholesterol; 11 mg sodium.