 back to traditional Chinese children's recipes
Fortune Cookies
Despite common belief that the fortune cookie comes from China, the recipe actually originated in San Francisco in 1907! Today, Fortune Cookies are often served with Chinese food as a dessert in the United States.
Making your own fortune cookies can be fun, especially with your own personalized fortunes! While you are working on the recipe, let your kids color their own strips of paper to put inside the cookies when they are ready. One fun variation is to print fortunes with chores for a more "palatable" way to ask your child to clean their room!
Ingredients/Tools
- Cookie Sheet
- Paper for fortunes
- Large bowl
- Spatula
- 3 egg whites
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tablespoons water
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Grease cookie sheets, or line with parchment.
- Prepare your fortunes! Cut small stripes of paper about 1/4" x 1.5" and write your fortunes on them.
- In a large clean glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites and sugar on high speed of an electric mixer until frothy, about 2 minutes.
- At low speed, add the butter, vanilla, almond extract, water and flour one at a time, mixing well after each.
- Spoon the mixture (should be like pancake batter) onto the prepared baking sheets, forming circles about 3 inches in diameter. Leave a few inches between each one.
- Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges begin to brown slightly.
- Now for the tricky part: move fast during this step! Quickly remove one at a time with a spatula, place your fortune in the center, and fold in half. Fold the ends of the half together into a horse shoe shape. If they open up, try placing them into a shallow cup or muffin tin until they cool and firm.
SUGGESTED "TALKING POINTS":
Fortune cookies are a good example of how traditions can begin - they were introduced barely 100 years ago and now they are eaten by millions each year, and have become a part of Chinese-American culture.
- how do traditions begin?
- what sort of tradition would you like to start?
- what traditions does your family have?
Thank you for visiting the Circletime Kids free World Library of children's multicultural and multilingual early learning resources!
Sign up as a member to receive our free newsletter, receive exclusive offers, and stay up to date on new content as the library expands (we do not share or sell your information)
Please let us know if these traditional Chinese children's recipes have helped your multicultural curriculum!
|
