We Love Cooking!:
fortune cookies

Yesterday, I spent the day getting a tour of Lamb farms in Co. Kerry an hours drive from where we were staying the night before in Ballincollig, Co. Cork. Michael Gottstein and Dennis Carrol from Ring Of Kerry Quality Assured Lamb were my guides for the day and we saw lots of great things which I will save alongside some pics for my next post!

After the great reaction to the video of the lovely Sophie from Kooky Dough, I persuaded her to share with me her secret recipe for her favourite homemade cookies. Now there has been A LOT of discussion over the perfect cookies, but for me it's all about making them homemade with a decent recipe and with a little bit of love! Sorry I'm feeling very loving today! :)

Sophie's Chocolate & Hazelnut Chip Cookies
Sophie spend a lot of time creating the perfect cookie recipe for her Kooky Dough, but she has given me this, her secret (not for long!) recipe for Chocolate and Hazelnut Chip cookies. The cookies are delicious and the dough can be frozen if you wanted to make a few ahead of time.

Makes about 12-15 cookies
225g butter
375g muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
350g plain flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
250g good quality chocolate, chopped
100g toasted hazelnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and fold in, then add the chocolate and hazelnuts.
Form the dough into a round, wrap in cling film and transfer to the refrigerator for 30 mins.
When ready to bake, simply cut the dough into slices and lay on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake for approx 10-12 minutes or until pale golden brown.

Variation: White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies
Substitute white chocolate and dried cranberries for the chocolate and hazelnuts above.

This recipe is probably the closest one to the way I like my Chocolate Chip Cookies to be, I adpated it from this recipe from the King Arthur Flour website and it seems to be pretty foolproof. The cookies are crunchy and chewy all at the same time, which, in my books is a winner!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
The best way to get nice even cookies is to use an medium sized ice cream scoop. Using one means, not only will you get proffesional looking cookies, but it totally simplifies the spooning out process! Also if you can't get your hands on chocolate chips, just break up some good quality chocolate bars and they will do the trick.

Makes 8-10 cookies
140g/5oz brown sugar
140g/5oz granulated sugar
225g/8oz butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 large egg
240g/8½oz plain flour
340g/12oz chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease two large baking trays or line with baking parchment.
In a large mixing bowl, with a wooden spoon, beat the sugars, salt, vanilla extract, and butter until they are smooth and combined.
Add the egg and beat again, until thoroughly mixed through.
Mix in the flour and when the dough begins to form, add the chocolate chips and mix again lightly, until everything is combined.
Using an medium sized ice cream scoop or a large dessertspoon, spoon the dough onto the prepared baking trays, leaving about 2 inches between them as the cookies will spread out as they cook.
Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are a nice golden brown with the middle remaining slightly pale.
Enjoy the cookies old school style, a little warm with a nice cool glass of milk!
JUMANJI!

I’ve always been a bit of an arts and crafts fan, especially when I was growing up. I guess that’s why making these fortune cookies appealed to me in the first place! Fortune cookies are really fun to make and customise. They add a cool little touch to home cooked Asian dishes.
The origin of the fortune cookie seems to be highly disputed, and in their current form appear to be more of an American take on an early Japanese idea. The cookies served at many restaurants are supposedly filled with a Chinese proverb but many cynics have pointed out that people are actually hired to write these! Either way I think the idea is quite nice!

I have made these years ago from a recipe in an Asian cookery book, but I couldn’t manage to find it when I went routing the other day. Instead I have used this recipe which seems to be fairly similar, but only makes 10. I have doubled the recipe here, but be warned making this many is quite time consuming, as you can only make a few at a time.

Fortune Cookies

The trick to making the cookies is timing, so prepare everything you need before you stick them in the oven. You have to mould the hot little discs as soon as they come out of the oven, so I would suggest you use a pair of gloves or some kitchen paper. I don't have asbestos hands so when I first made these I was hopping around the place from the heat of moulding them with my bare hands. NOT FUN! The technique of moulding is fairly simple, you fold the disc in half, and then fold it in half again over the rim of a glass. Sound easy? It is!

4 large egg whites.
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
6 tablespoons of sunflower oil.
175g of all purpose white flour.
375g of granulated sugar.
1 ½ teaspoon of cornflour
½ teaspoon of salt.
6 teaspoons of water.

Preheat the oven to 150˚C/Gas 2/300˚F and grease a wide baking sheet.
Write and cut out your own customised fortunes on little strips of paper about 10cm by 1cm and set aside.
Using a whisk, beat the egg whites in a large bowl with the oil, and vanilla extract. Beat them until they become thick, but not stiff. Sieve in the flour and cornflour. Add the sugar, salt and water and mix through the egg whites. Combine thoroughly until you have no lumps and bumps!

Place 4 level tablespoon of the mix evenly spaced on the baking sheet. I find working with four discs at a time to be the easiest. Distribute the mix evenly by tilting the tray until you get a nice wide disc around 10cm in diameter.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the cookies go a light golden brown colour around the edges. Working quickly- remove one disc from the baking sheet, place the fortune in the center and gently fold in half. Bend the two ends of the disc over the rim of a glass and hold in position for 20 seconds until it cools.
Repeat the process until you get through all the cookie mix.