FORTUNE SWEEPSTAKES RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a cookie sheet. Write fortunes on strips of paper about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Generously grease 2 cookie sheets.
• Mix the egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg white mixture.
• Place teaspoonfuls of the batter at least 4 inches apart on one of the prepared cookie sheets. Tilt the sheet to move the batter into round shapes about 3 inches in diameter. Be careful to make batter as round and even as possible. Do not make too many, because the cookie have to be really hot to form them and once they cool it is too late. Start with 2 or 3 to a sheet and see how many you can do.
• Bake for 5 minutes or until cookie has turned a golden color 1/2 inch wide around the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale. While one sheet is baking, prepare the other.
• Remove from oven and quickly move cookie with a wide spatula and place upside down on a wooden board. Quickly place the fortune on the cookie, close to the middle and fold the cookie in half. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin or egg carton to hold their shape until firm.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a nonstick baking mat; set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites and sugar on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add flour and salt and beat until combined. Add butter, heavy cream, and almond extract and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
• Place a 5-inch round plastic template on prepared baking sheet; spread batter to fill. Repeat process once (two cookies per baking sheet). Transfer to oven and bake until edges turn golden brown, 6 to 7 minutes.
• Transfer baking sheet to a heat-resistant surface. Working as quickly as possible, slide an offset spatula under one of the cookies. Lift it up, and, using your fingers, fold the cookie in half, pinching the top together to form a loose semicircle (if you are placing a message in the cookie, you should fold it in at this point). Hold the cookie with your index fingers inserted at each open end and slide your thumbs together along the bottom line. Press into the center while bending the two open ends together and down to form 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 into the shape. Transfer fortune cookies to the cups of a large muffin tin to cool. Repeat process with remaining batter. To avoid wasting batter, try the shaping process with a circle of paper first.