Crisp, sweet and delicious! These easy-to-make vanilla flavoured fortune cookie hamantaschen contain Purim greetings and fun messages. Happy Purim!
I’ve had these fortune cookie hamantaschen in mind for years and years, and I’m so pleased I finally found time to work out how to make them!
Fortune cookies – Knitted treats
I had a knitting pattern for knitted hamantaschen (yes really!) which was based on a pattern for knitted fortune cookies. It made me realise that both hamantaschen and fortune cookies start out as circles, which are folded around a filling.
Truly fortunate
These fortune cookie-hamantaschen were way easier than I’d thought. They are also FAR yummier than any store-bought mass-produced fortune cookie I’ve ever eaten. They are crisp, sweet and deliciously vanilla-scented. I’m sure you could experiment with other flavourings too. I might use lemon or orange essence in my next batch and see how that turns out.
Fortune cookie ingredients
You might imagine that something as exotic as a fortune cookie would require elaborate ingredients. Not so! You can make these delicious Purim cookies from the following simple items:
- flour
- potato flour (potato starch) – I bet you’ve got some hanging around from last Pesach, right?!
- sugar
- oil
- egg white
- vanilla
- water
Be quick!
They are a bit time consuming as you can only do a few at a time, and you do have to be quick with the folding. However, if the worst happens and your cookies start to harden before they’re shaped, you can always pop them back into the oven. Give them a minute to soften up and then have another go. They’re really very forgiving.
Fortune cookie factory
A few years ago we visited a fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. A woman was deftly folding the cookies around the fortunes as each one emerged from a special machine. She was much speedier than I was! Here’s a photo.
Telling fortunes
For these hamantaschen, I made special Purim themed fortunes – some that said “Happy Purim” or “Chag Purim Sameach” and some with jokes and one-liners on them. You can download the fortunes to cut out here if you don’t want to write your own. Alternatively you can stick to classic, vague fortunes such as “Every day in your life is a special occasion”. There’s an extremely long list of actual cookie fortunes here.
I think these fortune cookie hamantaschen are really fun and my daughter Kipper agreed! I might enlist her help to write some more fortunes.
Extra treats
I liked these fortune cookie hamantaschen simple and unadorned, but you could pop a few jelly beans or similar sized sweets inside, for an extra little treat.
You can also drizzle the outside with melted chocolate or icing, and decorate with sprinkles. Be adventurous!
Themed mishloach manot
These fortune cookie hamantaschen are the perfect addition to an Asian themed mishloach manot gift. Other items could include:
- rice cakes
- crispy chow mein noodles
- seaweed snacks
- lychees
- fancy chopsticks
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📖 Recipe
Fortune Cookie Hamantaschen
Ingredients
- 60 g plain flour
- 4 teaspoon potato flour (potato starch)
- 110 g sugar
- 1 egg white
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 teaspoon cold water
- ¼-½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking sheet with a non-stick silicone liner. Print out or write your fortunes and cut them into strips.
- Mix together the flour, potato flour, sugar and salt.
- With a balloon whisk, vigorously beat the egg whites for about a minute until foamy. Beat in the oil, water and vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and whisk well to combine into a smooth batter
- Scoop up about 1 tablespoon of the batter and pour onto the lined baking sheet. Spread out to a circle approximately 8-9 cm (3-3.5 inches) across. Repeat 2-3 more times to prepare 3-4 cookies on the baking sheet.
- Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 6-8 minutes until just browning at the edges.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and WORKING QUICKLY, loosen each one from the silicone liner by running a palette knife around the edge and sliding it underneath the cookie. Flip the cookies over.
- Place a paper fortune in the centre of a cookie. Fold up the edges to form a triangular hamantaschen shape, then turn folded side down and place on a wire rack to cool.
- Repeat with the remaining cookies. If they begin to harden, return to the oven for 30-60 seconds to soften them, then continue.
- Continue making cookies in this way until all the batter is used up.Happy Purim!
Nutrition
More fun hamantaschen recipes
If you’d like to try more fun hamantaschen, how about Eccles cake hamantaschen, boozy ‘mince pie’ hamantaschen, jammy dodger-taschen, or these delicious savoury pizzataschen.
Or just browse all of my Purim recipes here.
I’m linking this recipe up to #CookBlogShare.
Stuart Vettese
These are so cute and do sound much better than the mass-produced ones. Thanks for sharing with #TreatPetite
Kat (The Baking Explorer)
I love how you’ve folded these! They look crispy and delicious, thank you for linking up with #TreatPetite
Helen
Thanks Kat! I think the hamantaschen shape is probably easier than the fortune cookie shape 🙂
Eb Gargano / easypeasyfoodie.com
Oh what a lovely idea! Thanks for sharing it with #CookBlogShare 🙂 Eb x
Helen
Thanks Eb 🙂
Invisibly Me
I had no idea how to make fortune cookies until this so thanks for sharing! Caz x
Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes
These look like fun! I’ve never thought to make my own fortune cookies before.
Helen
You should have a go! I’m going to try them in different flavours next, I think.
Dannii
These look so neat and delicious. To be honest, I never knew they were so easy to make!
Helen
Thanks Dannii. They’re much easier than I anticipated.
Camilla Hawkins
What a good job you’ve done with these, look like they were manufactured:-)
Helen
LOL! Thanks Camilla. I think that’s testament to just how EASY these are ?
Miriam
This looks brilliant! I want to try these this year!
Helen
Thanks Miriam! ?
Happy Purim!