Well Fed Buff: Lunar Festival Fortune Cookies

Happy Lunar Festival! Need a little pick-me-up in between visiting your elders? Make your own fortune cookies! There's nothing like making your own Azeroth-related fortunes; our favorites are based on the coins of the Dalaran fountain or the humorous Twitter antics of Angryorc.

Just make sure you get the fortunes all written up and ready to go before you start baking, because making fortune cookies is a fast-paced, hands-on project that will demand your full attention as you cut, bake, shape and cool the little guys in quick succession.

Lunar Festival Fortune Cookies

• 1 egg white

• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup white sugar

• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 pinch salt

2 cookie sheets for baking
Muffin tin or egg cartons to hold the cooling cookies
Flour sifter (nice but not absolutely necessary)
12 small strips of paper (about 3.5" x 0.5") lettered with WoW-related fortunes

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter both cookie sheets, or spray them with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Measure the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl; if you don't have a sifter, mix it together thoroughly.

3. Beat the egg white with the vanilla until it's foamy and bubbly but not stiff.

4. Sift into the egg white mixture the flour, salt and sugar.

5. Place teaspoonfuls of the batter on one prepared cookie sheet, at least 4 inches apart. Tilt the sheet to spread the batter into circles approximately 3 inches in diameter, moving carefully to make them as accurately round as possible. Start off by making two or three total, to see if you can keep up with the rest of the process once they're done baking.

6. Bake for 5 minutes or until the outer half-inch of the edge of the cookies have turned golden; the middle of the cookie will remain pale.

7. While the first sheet of cookies is baking, shape the batter on the second.

8. When the cookies in the oven are done, move swiftly! Remove them from the oven and pop the second batch into the oven. Move the first batch of cookies from the baking sheet to the counter with a wide spatula. Lay a fortune in the center of each cookie.

9. Here's the best folding technique, straight from Martha Stewart herself: "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 of the cookie 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." Gently set the folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin or egg carton, to protect their shape until they're firm.

This recipe makes 1 dozen fortune cookies -- the perfect size for first-timers. Once you've gotten the hang of it, try adding a dash of almond extract, or move to a richer recipe.

[Image credits: karen_neoh]