Can you believe that Valentine's Day is sneaking up around the corner? It's a very special day in our house as it's my son's birthday so every year, the day is all about him. And it's half term next week so I'm looking forward to slowing down the pace slightly and enjoying a week with my boys. January flew by in the blink of an eye. I had many, many plans for blogging but I was suddenly inundated with cake orders and whilst that's no bad thing, it meant that all my time was absorbed by cakes leaving time for -- not much else!
I had a plan about making Coconut Fortune Cookies for Chinese New Year but that came and went in a flurry of tiered chocolate cake and sugar characters and then I realised that these cookies would be totally perfect for Valentine's Day. What could be more special than writing sweet nothings to your loved one and sealing them inside these little cookies?
The taste and texture of the cookies are more like tuiles than the traditional fortune cookies I'm used to having in Chinese restaurants as they're much lighter and thinner. And these ones are flavoured with almond and sprinkled with coconut. Almond and coconut are two of my favourite flavours so I love the combination of them in these sweet little bites.
I typed up a collection of lucky quotes and printed them on paper. Traditional fortune cookies have the more glossy laminated paper but I used regular paper for these as they don't hang around for long in our house :)
I also think Fortune Cookies are the perfect end for a dinner party, enjoyed with a cup of coffee, and you can fill them with little notes for your friends and family. So many possibilities!
coconut fortune cookies of love
makes 8 cookies
Ingredients
- 40g egg white (1 egg)
- 25g icing sugar, sifted
- 1/2 tsp almond essence
- 15g butter, melted
- 20g plain flour
- 15g dessicated coconut
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (fan)
- Line a baking tray - I use silpat but if you don't have this, line the tray with greaseproof paper and lightly grease and flour it
- In a standing mixer, beat the egg white for a few minutes until it's frothy
- On medium speed, slowly add in the sifted icing sugar, followed by the the almond essence and melted butter
- Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour until well-combined
- You want to create 2 circles of mixture on your baking tray, each one around 3 inches and on either side of the baking tray
- Drop 1 tsp of mixture on to the baking tray and then using the back of a spoon smooth it out until you have a 3 inch circle -- I use a 3 inch cutter as a guide here
- Create a second circle on the other side of the tray
- Pop it in the oven for around 5-7 minutes -- you want the edges to be brown but keep an eye on them so they don't burn
- When they're ready, working quickly, take them out of the oven and place them on a wire cooling tray
- Using a spatula, loosen the first cookie, pop on a fortune (if you're using them), fold the cookie in half and then half again
- Set it over the edge of a glass to create the fortune cookie shape and hold it until it sets
- Place on a cooling rack to cook
- Repeat with the second cookie
- If your cookies aren't quite the shape you want, you can soften them in the oven again for around 30 seconds and then shape them a little more
- Keep going with the rest of your mixture until you've finished making all of your cookies
- Enjoy them with a coffee and keep you fingers crossed for a good fortune :)