Five Spice Fortune Cookies Recipes

FIVE-SPICE CRANBERRY MOONCAKE COOKIES FROM THE COOKIE BOOK

Steps:

• To make the Five-Spice Filling, in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the cranberries, cherries, brown sugar, water and five-spice powder and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, stirring frequently for about 6 minutes, or until the cranberries have popped and most of the liquid has evaporated. Set aside to cool completely.
• In a food processor fitted with the blade, add the walnuts and run the machine until they are finely chopped. Add in the chocolate and pulse several times until the chocolate is finely chopped and the mixture is blended. Finally add in the cooled cranberry mixture and pulse the machine to combine. Place the mixture in the fridge to firm up some more while you make your cookie.
• To make the cookies, in an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar and mix on medium until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and add in the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, making sure to completely blend the first before adding the next. Add in the vanilla and blend for 1 minute more, again scraping down the sides and bottom.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the bread flour, all-purpose flour and sea salt. Add to the butter mixture and run the machine for 1 minute more or until just blended. Separate the dough into 23, roughly 3-tablespoon-sized (42-g) balls. It's messy. Sorry.
• To assemble, cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Press your thumb in the center of the cookie dough ball and make enough space for the filling. Put about 1 teaspoon of filling in there and then press the dough over to enclose it. It's ok if the dough gets stained from the cranberries, it looks pretty once baked and I actually found myself purposely making it happen. Just make sure the actual filling is encapsulated by the dough.
• Lightly flour a clean surface as well as the dough ball and the mooncake mold. Press a 5 3/4 x 2 1/2-inch (14.5 x 6.5-cm) mold, or cookie stamp, down on the dough ball until it meets some resistance. Gently tap the mold on the counter to release the mooncake cookie and place on the prepared baking sheet leaving 11/2 inches (3.7 cm) between cookies. Freeze the cookies for 1 hour or refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for 17 to 18 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet.
• To make the glaze, once the cookies are cool, in a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and orange juice. Invert the mooncakes into the glaze, letting the excess drip back into the bowl. Scrape the side of your finger over the surface of the mooncake to remove any excess glaze.
• Buy the book! https://www.amazon.com/Cookie-Book-Decadent-Bites-Occasion/dp/1624146376/.
• Buy the mooncake mold! https://amzn.to/2Kzfbx7.

FIVE-SPICE FORTUNE COOKIES

Steps:

• Write fortunes on strips of paper.
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat to 400°F. Butter a 6-inch-wide strip lengthwise across middle of 2 baking sheets (from one short side to the other).
• Sift together flour, five-spice powder, and a pinch of salt into a bowl and stir in sugar.
• Whisk egg whites in a bowl just until foamy. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
• Put 2 teaspoons batter on 1 side of buttered area of 1 baking sheet and spread evenly into a round about 3 1/2 inches in diameter using back of a spoon or a small offset spatula. Place 2 teaspoons more batter on other half of buttered area and form another round.
• Bake rounds until golden around edge and paler gold in center, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove rounds from oven and, working quickly, flip 1 cookie over on baking sheet with a spatula. Transfer same cookie to a work surface, then put a fortune in center of inverted cookie and fold cookie in half (cookie will be hot). Lift up cookie with both hands by corners and press center of folded bottom edge perpendicularly against the edge of a countertop, making a crease. Continue folding in same direction to bring corners together to create a C shape. Hold for a few seconds while cookie cools and shape sets, then set aside to cool. Quickly invert and fold second hot cookie, this time working on baking sheet to keep cookie warm and malleable.
• Make 2 more cookies in same manner on second buttered baking sheet, then continue with remaining batter, using a buttered cool baking sheet for each batch.
• *Available at Asian markets and specialty foods shops.