Fortune Cookie Valentine

Fortune Cookie Valentine

Make a few of these fortune cookies for Valentine's day.   Tuck a few in your sweetie's lunch or give them as a small gift.  Use them to hint at a date you've planned or just to say "I love you!"  These aren't difficult, but there are several things that can go wrong.  Watch them carefully when you bake them because they will brown quickly.  You also have to work quickly when you tuck the fortunes inside as the cookies won't fold when they start to harden.

You will need: 1.  Strips of paper and a pen 2.  1 egg white 3.  1/4 tsp. vanilla 4.  1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil 5.  1/4 cup flour 6.  1/4 cup sugar 7.  Pinch of salt 8. 1 tsp cornstarch 9.  2 tsp. of water 10.  Red food coloring (optional) Makes about 4-5 fortune cookies.
	1.  Cut four or five strips of paper that are about 1/2 inch wide and three inches long.  Write the fortunes on then and set them aside.
	2.  Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.  Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and cornstarch together in a small bowl.
	3.  Beat the egg white until it is frothy and just begins to stiffen.  Mix in the water, vanilla, and oil.   This will make the mixture thinner.  Beat until it is nice and frothy and thick again.
	4.  Mix in the dry ingredients.  Add two drop of red food dye and mix until the dough is evenly colored.  The dough should be soft, just a little stiffer than a pancake or cake batter.
	5.  Spoon the dough onto a well greased cookie sheet, leaving lots of space between the spoonfuls.  You should get four or five cookies from one batch of dough.  Let it sit for about a minute so it can spread into circles about four inches across.
	6.  Bake for about eight minutes.  Watch carefully and remove the cookies from the oven when the edges begin to brown.
	7.  You will have to do the next steps quickly.  Use a spatula to remove the cookies from the cookie tray.  Flip them upside down and place a fortune on each one.
	8.  Fold the cookie in half and pinch the edges together.  Than gently bend the cookie into a fortune cookie shape.  Set it aside to cool and continue with the other cookies.  The cookies cool quickly and become crunchy so do the folding as fast as you can!
	9.  Your fortune cookies are ready!  You have a fun little Valentine's gift for your sweetheart.  If you would like to package your cookies, put them in a quart size baggie and seal it.  Cut a piece of paper that is about four inches wide and slightly longer than your baggie.  Fold it in half over the baggie.  Put a strip of contrasting paper across the first piece and staple it in place.
	10.  Use a hole punch to punch holes through the strip of paper.
	11. Glue a piece of ribbon to the back of the package on each side.  Thread the ribbon through the holes and tie a bow in the center.

Although fortune cookies are served in Chinese restaurants, they aren't really Chinese.  If they originated anywhere in the East, it was in Japan.  Similarly folded cookies were made there but there was no fortune inside the cookie although sometimes there was one alongside the cookie.  Fortune cookies as we know them were probably invented in the United States with both San Fransisco and Los Angeles claiming to the be place of origin.