This is a great opportunity to both bake and have some fun by getting your residents to write their own fortunes or lucky numbers on small pieces of paper. Make sure to write fortunes on strips of paper that are about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide so they will fit in the cookies. Then, set the fortunes aside and have the residents help with creating the dough for the fortune cookies.

To make the fortune cookies, you will need:

• 1 egg white
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and generously grease 2 cookie sheets. Mix the egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg white mixture. 

Place teaspoonfuls of the batter at least 4 inches apart on one of the prepared cookie sheets. Tilt the sheet to move the batter into round shapes about 3 inches in diameter. Be careful to make the batter as round and even as possible. Do not make too many at once because you will need to mold the cookies into shape while they’re still really hot. Once they cool down, it’s too late! Start with 2 or 3 to a sheet and see how many you can do.

Bake for 5 minutes or until the cookie has turned a golden color 1/2 inch wide around the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale. While one sheet is baking, prepare the other.

Remove from oven and quickly move the cookies with a wide spatula and place upside down on a wooden board. Quickly place the fortune on the cookie, close to the middle and fold the cookie in half. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin or egg carton to hold their shape until firm.

Have residents exchange cookies to pick their fortunes!