Gourmet Cookie Bouquets Recipe Blog

You are fun, playful, and unique – so why should your wedding favors be boring, more-of-the-same trinkets that guests don’t bother taking home?  Fortune cookies are the ideal favor: they are small, relatively inexpensive, and customizable. If guests don’t take them home, it’s because they’ve already eaten them!  Here are some tips for having fortune cookie wedding favors for your big day.

The average couple spends between $231 on their wedding favors; it is not a huge piece of the overall wedding budget but every cent helps when you’re saving for a honeymoon!  Fortune cookies can help you cut it down a bit.  You can, for instance, find traditional, undecorated fortune cookies for about $0.55 per cookie.  Further, you can get a discount if you are buying in bulk.  Look for services that include personalization with the cost of the cookie; in other words, you shouldn’t have to pay extra for a custom message.

Some ideas for custom fortune cookies include:

• Thank you for sharing our special day.  September 12, 2013.
• This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
• True love stories never have endings.
• There is no remedy for love but to love more.
• The love we give away is the only love we keep.

You can also find companies that offer flavored varieties, including cappuccino, banana, coconut, raspberry, lemon, chocolate, mint, graham cracker, and more.  These may fit with the theme of your wedding: for instance, pineapple and coconut fortune cookies may be perfect for that tropical beach wedding.  Some brides, however, do not give flavored cookies rave reviews: they say that it is better to go with traditional to appeal to a wider variety of people.

To further customize your fortune cookie favors, you can have traditional cookies that are colored. This is a wonderful idea because you can have them complement your wedding colors and the overall theme of the décor.  If you do choose to have colored cookies, make sure that you get the flavor you want. For instance, you may want red cookies – but you don’t want strawberry, apple, cinnamon, or cherry flavors.  So, you would want to make sure you are getting traditional cookies with coloring, not flavored.

If you want a more elegant touch, you can opt to have chocolate-dipped fortune cookies. These can cost twice as much as traditional, plain cookies, but it may be worth it to you to offer a gourmet favor.  To save money, you might consider having traditional cookies personalized for you, and then decorate them yourself.  This involves a little more work, but most couples go with DIY wedding favors anyway.

Note: if you do choose to purchase your cookies, make sure to ask when they are baked so you get fresh, crisp cookies!

To decorate, simply melt chocolate (milk or dark works best) and dip the rounded part of the cookie, leaving the two points plain. While the chocolate is still wet, you can sprinkle with decorating accessories, like colored sugar or, for a little glitz, sugar pearls.  You can also wait for the chocolate to dry and drizzle with a contrasting chocolate, such as white on milk chocolate or dark chocolate on milk chocolate.

You can then use a treat bag, cellophane, or even mini Chinese takeout boxes to present them to guests.  You can purchase the takeout boxes or find a free template online and make your own.  You can do one cookie per guest or give them a pair of contrasting cookies: for instance, one dipped in white chocolate and one dipped in dark or one with blue sprinkles and the other with gold (or whatever your wedding colors are).

Fortune cookies make excellent wedding favors; they are bite-size souvenirs of your big day that guests will remember long after they’ve polished them off!

Related Articles:

• All About National Fortune Cookie Day
• How to Make Homemade Fortune Cookies
• Custom Fortune Cookies Saying Ideas for Any Occasion

Unlike our traditional cookie favorites – chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar – fortune cookies are thin, crisp, crunchy, and perfectly packaged for one.  If your favorite part of a trip to a Chinese restaurant is the fortune cookie at the end, you probably wish that these treats were just a little bigger!

Your wish has come true: giant fortune cookies offer all the fun and even more of the taste.  These delightful outsized cookies can be customized to suit your recipient and the occasion.

You can purchase a gourmet, customized fortune cookie – but why not get adventurous and try to make your own?  It can be a little tricky, but don’t let that stop you.

You can practice by using the recipe below to make small cookies and perfect your technique before moving onto the giant version.

Fortune Cookies

Recipe courtesy of Do It Yourself Gifts

Yield: 12 thin cookies or 1 giant cookie

You need:

• 1 egg white
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons water

To make:

1. Use small slips of paper to write customized fortunes for your recipient and the specific occasion you are celebrating.
2. Use a hand mixer to mix the egg white until it is foamy, but not stiff.
3. Add vanilla, water, and softened butter and mix.
4. Sift flour, salt and sugar, and blend into egg white mixture to make thin dough. *If dough is too thin, add water a teaspoon at a time.
5. Preheat oven to 400˚ and prepare cookie sheets with non-stick spray OR cover with parchment paper and then apply non-stick spray.
6. To make the small cookies: place teaspoons of batter at least 4 inches apart on cookie sheet. Smooth out with a spoon, trying to make your circle as perfect as possible. They should be thin enough to allow you to see the pan through them a bit. Make about 3 or 4 cookies at a time.
7. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the edges are brown but the middle is still pale. You have to fold the cookies while they’re very hot, so hurry and use cotton gloves or protect your hands with a dishtowel.
8. Place your prepared fortune in the middle and fold cookie over. Press the edges together, using the pale center of the cookie to “glue” them shut.
9. Either hang the cookie over a measuring cup or bowl or bend them over an empty egg carton to shape.
10. Allow the cookies to harden and store in air-tight container.

Now, to make the large fortune cookie, prepare the dough and make one large cookie instead of 12 small ones.  Repeat the same steps, adjusting baking time, insert your fortune, and then place cookie over large bowl to dry and harden.

Onto the fun part!

You can customize your cookie in any number of ways. Some ideas:

• Melt chocolate in double boiler and dip cookie.  While chocolate is wet, apply a layer of sprinkles, colored sugar, or other candy goodies.  You can customize your chocolate dipped fortune cookie with decorating embellishments to suit the occasion: red and green for Christmas; red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July; or your recipient’s school colors for a graduation.
• Use shredded coconut, cocoa powder, crushed cookies, and other goodies to customize your giant fortune cookie.
• Use shaped candy sprinkles to commemorate the occasion or season.
• Dip in dark chocolate and drizzle with melted white chocolate or vice versa. Or both!
• Add a dab of food coloring when you’re making your dough to produce a colored fortune cookie. This is an excellent, and very easy, way to customize your cookies.
• Write fortunes that are just right for the recipient, making them funny, sentimental, or sweet.

Giant fortune cookies don’t have to cost a fortune! Make your own and give the perfect treat for any occasion.

Related Articles:

1. All About National Fortune Cookie Day
2. How Do Fortunes Get Inside Fortune Cookies?
3. Custom Fortune Cookies Saying Ideas for Any Occasion

Do you have a friend who is going through a rough patch?  A family member who you haven’t seen in a while? A buddy who you just want to make a bit happier?  This is the perfect time to send a thoughtful just because gift.  You can easily – and deliciously – brighten someone’s day with cookies, especially when they are homemade with an extra helping of love and appreciation.

Bring on the Fun

While a pile of fresh, moist chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies is sure to brighten anyone’s day, why not try something a bit different?  Sometimes, just a push out of the ordinary brings a smile to our faces – and the cookies taste just as good!  Here are some ideas for fun, day-brightening cookies.

Fun Cookie Suckers, recipe courtesy of AllRecipes

You will need:

• ¾ cup butter, softened
• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Paste food coloring, assorted colors
• 24 lollipop sticks

To make:

1. Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar until fluffy.
2. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.
3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add this to creamed mixture.
4. Stir until dough is soft.
5. Divide dough into fourths and tint each section with a different color.
6. Wrap in plastic and chill for 2 hours.
7. Preheat your oven to 350˚F.
8. Shape dough into ¾-inch balls and grease cookie sheet.
9. To make the cookie, place 1 of each color together to make a large rainbow ball. Roll into 12-inch log (it’ll look like a snake).

10.   Starting at one end, roll the dough to make a 2 ¾-inch round cookies.

11.  Place on cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart, and insert lollipop sticks into bottom of cookie.

12.  Bake for about 8 minutes, or until lightly browned. These are great for get well cookies!

Whoopie Pies, from Delish

Cookie Dough Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ cup milk
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extra
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg

Crème Filling Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons butter, slight softened
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 (7 to 7 ½-ounce) jar marshmallow crème
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make:

• Grease 2 cookie sheets and preheat oven to 350˚F.
• Mix all dough ingredients until smooth.
• Drop by heaping tablespoons, 2 inches apart, on each cookie sheet.
• Bake 12 to 14 minutes until puffy. Transfer to cooling rack.
• For crème filling, beat butter until smooth with mixer on medium speed. On slow speed, gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar. Beat in crème and vanilla until smooth.
• Spread filling on flat side of 12 cookies. Top with remaining cookies.

Yum!

Candy Bar Cookie Pops, from Betty Crocker

This recipe combines all that is good in the sweets world. For a once-in-a-while treat, this cannot be beat.

Ingredients:

• 14 fun-size 100 Grand candy bars (or other bars with chewy caramel and crispy crunchies covered in milk chocolate).
• 28 craft sticks
• 1 box chocolate fudge cake mix
• ½ cup vegetable oil or melted butter
• 1 egg
• ½ cup powdered sugar or candy sprinkles

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and line cookie sheets with foil.
2. Cut fun-size candy bars in half crosswise.
3. Insert craft stick into the side of each.
4. Mix cake mix, oil, and egg with spoon until dough forms.
5. For each cookie, form a rounded tablespoon into a ball. Flatten with your palm and put candy on top.
6. Form dough around candy, sealing it well.
7. Roll in powdered sugar.
8. Place cookies 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
9. Bake 11 to 13 minutes, or until set.  The cookie will appear moist, like cake, in the cracks. This is great.

10.  Let cool for about 30 minutes.

It is worth taking the extra time and effort to make fun or decorated cookies when your goal is to brighten someone’s day.  They’ll appreciate not only the delicious gift, but the thought that went into it.

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Colored decorating sugar is a terrific way to jazz up baked goods.  Next time you need to make yummy decorated cookies to serve friends or a gift to give that hard-to-shop-for someone, pull out the sugar and make some magic.  You can purchase pre-made decorating sugar; but if you want to whip up a batch of tasty treats and the store is closed, or you just love to DIY, try making your own.  It’s easy, fun, and well worth the efforts!

No Fuss Colored Sugar

A small jar of sugar, containing four colors, costs almost $7.  Higher-end brands can cost up to $10 for a single color.  Save some money and try this:

You’ll need:

• 1 cup white sugar
• Liquid food coloring

To make:

1. Put sugar into a clean jar with a tight fitting lid.
2. Drip food coloring into the sugar. Start with 2 drops.
3. Close the lid and shake for about a minute.
4. Add more coloring if you need to, and shake again.
5. Use immediately and enjoy!

Variations on this:

• Instead of using a jar, put the sugar into a bowl and drop the food coloring in.  Use a fork to mix it in – or use your fingers.  You can also use plastic bags.
• If you use food coloring powder, mix it with a little vodka (it needs to be an alcohol-based liquid, and the taste/alcohol content will disperse).
• If you are not going to use the sugar right away, or if you want it to be a bit drier, spread it out on a plate or cooking sheet and let it dry.  This takes about an hour or two.  It will clump up, but simply break it up and you will have great shakable sugar.
• Make as many colors as you’d like.
• If you are doing this in humid weather, it may stick and clump.  To prevent this, put a few grains of white rice into the container. If you want, put the rice into a coffee filter and tie it off with twine to keep the rice out of the sugar.
• Create fun designs by placing a stencil on your baked goods and sprinkling the sugar to “color” in the design.
• If you want to reduce synthetic ingredients, try India Tree natural dyes or reduce your own juices for color.  Cranberry or beet juice, for instance, makes a terrific red.
• For glittery metallic sugar, mix a little luster dust in. Yes, you’ll have to buy your luster dust, but a little goes a long way, and you can use it to spice up any color.
• When dry, you can store the sugar in jars with tight fitting lids.  You can reuse spice jars if you’d like.

You can use your homemade decorating sugar for cookies, cakes, cupcakes, ice cream, sundaes, and anything that could use a dash of color and sweetness.

Another great idea is to package some for the baker in your life.  Make a variety of colors that your recipient will love.  This is really the benefit of making your own; you can create subtle tones that are much richer than anything you can buy in a store.  Take a look on Amazon and buy some cute glass jars with tight fitting lids.  Arrange the jars and some other baking essentials in a basket or baking dish, and there you have it. This makes a wonderful, and very inexpensive, birthday gift for someone.

Once you use decorating sugar, it becomes a must-have in your kitchen.  Why spend a fortune on buying commercial products when you can easily, quickly, and inexpensively make your own at home?  The reason why many people bake is because they enjoy creating and making delicious treats for themselves, their friends, and their families. Take it just one simple step further and mix up a few batches of your favorite colored decorating sugar.

Related Articles:

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Making perfect sugar cookies seems easy.  You mix up the dough, roll it out, cut out your shapes, bake, and decorate.  Before you know it, you have cookies that deserve to be in a beautiful cookie box or the display case at an upscale bakery… but not so fast.  In reality, your dough sticks. Your shapes get torn up as you scrape them off your work surface. You add more flour, which helps – but it makes your cookies dry, which means they don’t taste or look as good.  Making perfect sugar cookies can be easy; you just need to know a few tricks.  Rolling out sugar cookie dough right is the key to success.

There are a few different methods for rolling out sugar cookie dough.  If you are willing to put in some extra time (or at least, wait a little longer for your cookies), this is an effective and oft-used technique:

1. After you have made your dough, separate it into about four balls.  Place a sheet of waxed paper on a cookie sheet, and then put one of the balls on it.  Cover with another sheet of waxed paper and roll the dough to a thickness of about ½ inch.  Do this for each ball, and stack them up, using waxed paper between each layer.
2. Put your rolled-out dough in the refrigerator and chill for two to three hours.  If you can leave them overnight, that’s even better.
3. When they have chilled, take one sheet out at a time to let the others continue to chill.  Let the dough warm – but not up to room temperature. It needs to be a little cool.
4. Peel off the top layer of waxed paper.  Sprinkle a little flour onto the dough, put the waxed paper back in place, and then flip it over.  Peel off the other sheet.
5. Now it’s time to cut.  Lightly flour your cookie cutter and carefully cut your shapes.  You can cut right on the waxed paper. If it slips, wipe your counter with a damp cloth to get it to stay in place.  To get the most out of your dough, start cutting on the edges and move towards the middle.
6. Put dough scraps into a plastic baggie and then reroll them when you have enough to make a sheet.

When the dough is chilled, it keeps it from sticking to the rolling pin – so you can use far less flour – but it also prevents the cookies from shrinking.  If you are making very large cookies and you want them to retain their shape, roll out the dough directly on your cookie sheet and cut from there.  Remove the excess dough and leave the cookie cutout in place.

You should always let your sugar cookie dough chill for at least a half hour before cutting it.  If you do not have time for more, though, are you doomed to deal with sticky, messy dough?  Don’t despair. Here’s another trick to add to your repertoire:

We normally sprinkle flour on rolling pins, counter surfaces, or dough to reduce its tendency to stick.  As mentioned, this isn’t great for sugar cookies because they will taste more like flour cookies.  Instead, simply roll your dough with confectioners’ sugar.  It has a similar consistency to flour, and it will reduce stickiness so you can roll out your shapes. Likewise, dip your cookie cutters in a dish of confectioners’ sugar before cutting.

This is effective, but there is such a thing as too much sugar in a sugar cookie.  If you re-roll the dough more than once, the cookies can get crispy and brown very fast.  You may have to be very careful with your oven timing to prevent them from burning.

Sugar cookies are among the most versatile of treats because they can be made in any shape and decorated with any number of fun supplies.  Taking the time to chill your dough will help you get the delicious, and incredibly beautiful, decorated sugar cookies you want.

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