Fortune cookie clues birthday pressie for hubs

Hubby's birthday is coming up soon in May. I've been planning something special leading up to the big day. After some contemplation, I came up with what I believe to be a romantic and definitely creative idea...

I can't tell you what the big finale on the actual day is because hubby reads this blog as well. But I decided to prepare some clues for hubby every day to build up the anticipation up until his birthday.

At first I thought of putting the clues in little envelopes which he can open each day, but then I had a sudden epiphany...

FORTUNE COOKIES!!!

After doing a bit of research, I found out that they were not that difficult to make... just requires a bit of thought and preparation.

This is the recipe I used:



Ingredients
2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 teaspoons water

Beat egg whites, vanilla extract, almond extract and vegetable oil until frothy. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, sugar. Stir the water into the flour mixture, then combine with the egg white mixture until you have a smooth paste like batter.

Preheat the oven to 180°Celcius. Drop teaspoons of the batter onto a cookie sheet and spread out into a circle about 8-10cm in diametre. Make sure the batter is spaced about 3-4cm apart.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes until the edges start to brown. Remove the cookie from the sheet with a spatula, flip over and place small strip of paper in the middle of the cookie. The cookie will be still hot and pliable at this stage. Quickly fold in half then gently pull edges downward over a rim of a glass.

I then placed the folded cookies in muffin tins to let them cool down while maintaining their shape.


It took one or two tries at first before I got the hang of it. I burnt a couple of fingers but after that it was pretty straightforward process.

Here's the finished product with the clues all folded up neatly inside each cookie...


Sorry I didn't capture any photos of the process as I had to work very quickly with the hot cookies, and I couldn't ask hubby to help take the photos obviously... maybe the next time I make them, k?

Cookies all nicely gift-wrapped to present to hubby...


He was very excited to receive the cookies and is now hugging the jar possessively while waiting for me to finish this entry so we can unwrap the first clue...