Green Tea Black Sesame Fortune Cookies

 
With the Chinese New Year around the corner, fortune cookies are a fun and yummy way to ring in the new year with some hand-written well wishes for prosperity, good health, luck and wealth. I found this recipe on Food and Wine magazine, courtesy of Joanne Chang of Boston's Flour Bakery. It serves as a great butter cookie base and lends to different variations. I'm thinking chocolate or coffee fortune cookies by swapping out the green tea powder for unsweetened cocoa powder or espresso power. Or a pink Valentine's fortune cookie using ground, dehydrated strawberry powder from Trader Joe's. Kid-friendly rainbow fortune cookies can be made by adding some food coloring into the dough. 

The cookies are a little more difficult to make since you have to mold them into the desired shape right out of the hot oven. I would recommend watching YouTube video on the process prior to baking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0a3S5XNu88

Green Tea Black Sesame Fortune Cookies
adapted from Joanne Chang in Food & Wine

Ingredients 
3/4 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
4 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon matcha green-tea powder
Black sesame seeds

Directions
In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar with the egg whites, butter, flour and green-tea powder until smooth. Cover the batter and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 325° and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat. Have a coffee mug and standard-size muffin tin handy. Spoon two 2-tablespoon-size mounds of batter onto the baking sheet, 6 inches apart.

Using an offset spatula, spread the batter to make two 6-inch rounds. Sprinkle the black sesame seeds on top if desired. Bake in the center of the oven for 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges are browned and the centers are still light.

Let cool for 10 seconds, then using a spatula, invert one tuile and place a paper fortune in the center, if using.

Fold the tuile in half and then bring the ends together, using the rim of the coffee mug to make the crease. Set the fortune cookie in a muffin cup to hold its shape. 

If the tuile hardens, return it to the oven for a few seconds. Repeat with the remaining batter and fortunes. Let the cookies cool completely before serving. The cookies can be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Recrisp in the oven gently if necessary.