If you steam a fortune cookie for a few minutes, it will soften and become flexible again. This makes it possible to open and reclose even the best formed cookies.
Welcome, jmchicago. When you’re starting a new thread one a column by Cecil or the Staff, it’s considered good form to post a link, so we can all see which one you’re talking about. If you’re not familiar with vB code, then you can just copy the address from the “location” bar of your browser, and paste it into your message, and the board will automagically turn it into a link for you.
This was the fortune in my lunch on Wednesday:
“Promote literacy. Buy a box of fortune cookies today.”
Here’s a scan of it.
Cool idea.
I can see it now “Help! I’ve been steamed!”
Or “Boy, its hot in here.”
hee
I’m sure I’ve seen on some TV show where they showed how they REALLY put the messages in the cookies at the factory. A woman picks up a finished, hardened cookie, places it near this narrow conveyor belt, which somehow slips the paper into the little open fold in the cookie. It all happens so quickly you can’t really follow it, but she was doing about one cookie every two seconds, with nary a slip.
My wife talks about being at a physics conference/meeting where they did the standard banquet at a Chinese restaurant. After the meal finished and as the speeches started people started to open their fortune cookies and found great topical messages.
They said things like “PRL will accept your next paper without revisions!”, or “Your theory will prove correct”, and “Dr. XXX will finally accept that Dr. YYY was right all along”.
I do not know where they got the custom jobbies made, but I see that http://www.wontonfood.com/ does offer such services.
Buy Penn & Teller’s How to Play with Your Food and learn how to get the fortune you want. It even comes with some good ones (like “That lump is cancer”) and suggestions for using them (some are self-explanatory).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679743111/ref=rm_item
Collection of . . . unusual . . . fortune-cookie fortunes.
I wonder about steaming the cookies, because I think they might not be able to close & crisp right back up. You may end up with a wiggly fortune cookie, which is no fun.
I don’t know what Karen, the fortune cookie baker in the article, was doing when she made her cookies, but I bet she wasn’t using silpat. Silpat is like a teflon sheet that you can put on your cookie sheet, and is essential for sticky doughs like fortune cookies.
This is the recipe I got from culinary school:
4 oz butter, melted (1 stick butter)
3 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp instant tea
2 T. water
Combine egg whites, sugar, vanilla, and tea & water (whisk the tea into water first)
Add melted butter
Whisk in salt and flour
Best to refrigerate batter overnight (will make it stiff and easier to spread)
Line sheet pan with silpat, spray liberally with non-stick spray.
On silpat, spread batter into circles (or use a template cut from old margarine tub top).
Bake at 325° until edges turn golden–this will only take a few minutes.
Remove from oven, and shape immediately. Best to use rubber gloves, which will help protect from the heat. You can only bake off around three or four at a time, because they do harden within 20 seconds or so.
I make a French version of this kind of cookie, tuilles, all the time at work. It’s a very similar batter, and they have to be shaped right out of the oven. You just get over the burns on the hands and having to work quickly 
Oh my jmonster!
Thanks!
Penn and Teller rule.
Interestingly enough, scroll down jmonster’s link about the Penn and Teller book to the bottom where it lists other authors to consider, and the second on the list is Cecil Adams.
I enjoyed the fortune cookie column, but I find myself wondering who proofreads this stuff…
Goodness, that must be something to see! Would one use a second set of tweezers to control the primary tweezing operation?
[smartass] It’s not really essential, is it? Or are you claiming that the ancient Chinese invented Teflon? [/smartass]
I proposed to my wife in the message of a fortune cookie–bought a whole box of them and sorted 'til I found one that allowed for easy extraction and reinsertion of the little piece of paper.
Of course, then Ms. I’ll-Eat-Anything wasn’t in the mood for Chinese that night! :rolleyes: