Sourdough Fortune Cookies
A fun twist on a Chinese restaurant classic, these sourdough discard fortune cookies are crisp, delicious, and super fun to make with your family!
Servings 32 cookies
Calories 53kcal
Equipment
- Stand Mixer or hand mixer
- 2 Baking Sheets
- Silicone Baking Mat (optional)
- Pint Glass or large cup
- Muffin Tin or small bowls
Ingredients
- 3 Large Egg Whites (about 105g, if your eggs are small, you may want 4 whites)
- 150 g Sugar
- 100 g Butter melted, plus more for greasing pan
- 100 g Sourdough Discard (use discard, not starter)
- 2 g Almond Extract (½ teaspoon)
- 75 g All Purpose Flour
- Pinch of Salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 330ºF/165ºC (see note below) set on fan forced/convection. Grease the baking sheets with a thin layer of butter and have your fortunes all written up!
- Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer) whip the egg whites and sugar on high speed until white and frothy, about 1 minute.
- Add in the melted butter, sourdough discard and almond extract and mix on low speed until well-combined. Add the flour and salt and mix on low speed until most of the flour has disappeared, then use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the rest. The batter should be thick, smooth, and just a bit glossy.
- Use a tablespoon to scoop 1 tablespoon of batter onto the baking sheet and use the back of the tablespoon to spread it out into a roughly 3-inch/8-cm circle. Leave some space between the circles as the cookies will spread slightly in the oven. Continue until you have three or four cookies spread on the pan, or even two to start. You’ll need to shape the cookies before they cool off, which happens quickly, so be prepared as soon as they come out of the oven!
- Bake the fortune cookies for 8 to 9 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through so they cook as evenly as possible. The cookies should look dry on top, with the edges browning slightly. This part may need some fine-tuning. If the fortune cookies don’t brown on the edges, they’ll tear when you try to fold them. But if they brown too much, they will be too brittle and snap when you try to fold them, so keep an eye out. See note below about different ovens.
- When the cookies are done, remove them from the oven. As soon as the cookies are cool enough to touch, use a metal spatula or palette knife to lift the cookie and place a fortune in the center. Quickly but carefully, fold the cookie in half around the fortune.
- Hold each side of the cookie along the top curved edge and use the rim of a glass to fold the cookie into the proper shape, pushing down on the inside and the outside of the glass.
- Place the cookie inside the muffin tin to cool, which will hold it in the right shape. Repeat with the remaining cookies.
- Once all the cookies are folded, repeat steps 4-8 until all the batter is used up, re-greasing the pan each time (and washing if needed). If you get the hang of folding quickly, you can stagger the baking times so you can do multiple batches at once.
- These sourdough discard fortune cookies don’t stay crisp for long, but they also disappear from my house almost instantly! Store the cookies in an airtight container, I’ve found that glass containers keep the cookies crisp longer than plastic containers.
Notes
Here are my best tips for ensuring you get successful sourdough fortune cookies:
- Sourdough discard works best. And it must be from a 100% hydration starter, so not too thick. I tested the recipe with really thick sourdough starter and they just wouldn't crisp up in the oven because it had too much flour.
- I have used an Ikea silicone baking mat instead of greasing the pan, which helps a lot. The circles on the mat give me the exact size I need and help me to portion them evenly. I also found that when using the silicone baking mat the mixture didn't spread out. Sometimes the mixture spread, or became oddly shaped so I couldn't fold it in half easily with a buttered pan.
- This recipe has been made in multiple kitchens. I found 165ºC too cool in my oven, but it was perfect in others. 175ºC was the perfect temperature for me. This reiterates that you need to work with your oven! Every oven will be different. You want it hot enough to cook the sugar, but not too hot that they go brown too quickly.
- Make sure your fortunes aren't too big, thinner rectangles are best, no more than ½-inch x 2-inch strips.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 53kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 7mg | Sodium: 25mg | Potassium: 8mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 78IU | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 0.1mg
