Question:
I am doing a school project on fortune cookies. I need to find out where they get all of the raw materials for the fortune cookie, how it travels to where they produce it and then what is involved in the production process. Is this something you could help me with? Thanks.
—Carly
Answer:
The raw materials for fortune cookies are just the ingredients for the batter – flour (and/or cornstarch), sugar/confectioners sugar, oil/butter, egg, salt, cream, flavoring (usually almond extract) – depending on your recipe of choice. So manufacturers would get their supplies from any food distributor that carries those products. You’d also need your paper and someone to write the fortunes on the small pieces of paper if you are making these at home. Manufacturers use an automated fortune cookie machine that produces a minimum of 1200 cookies per hour. However, many small manufacturers make them more or less by hand, as you can see in this video from the NY Times.
Here is the most comprehensive article we’ve found on the topic, from Answers.com.
And, if you want to try your hand at making them at home, here are a few resources and recipes:
And, if you are in San Francisco, you might want to visit this factory:
