Fortune Cookies (gluten and dairy free)

We were invited to a Chinese New Year celebration yesterday and I was determined to bring fortune cookies that Alex could safely have.  Friday night I fought with three different recipes: two that were gluten free by design and one wheat flour recipe with gluten free flour blend as replacement.  All of them were flops and I was fairly discouraged and a bit angry about wasting some of the last of our eggs.  Our chickens and ducks have mostly stopped laying now.  :(   But the next morning I screwed by courage to the sticking place and gave it one more try.  This time I altered a recipe I already knew worked and success was mine!  I was even happier with how my stir fried pork with mushrooms served with sesame cabbage came out.  I will have to make that again since it was Whole 30 compliant and I'd like to post it.  The pork and cabbage helped me survive the challenge of not eating even the smallest taste of fortune cookie.  Thank goodness the kids make great taste testers!

Fortune Cookies (gluten and dairy free)
Adapted from this recipe which came from this recipe
Makes ~18 cookies

57g coconut oil
57g powdered sugar
2 egg whites, room temperature
48g tapioca flour
17g corn starch
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

-Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  
-Line a couple of baking pans with parchment paper. If your pans are rimmed I suggest flipping them over and working on the back side so that spreading the batter is easier.  Set out a muffin tin to use while forming cookies and print and cut out your fortunes.  I used a lot from  this list of fortune cookie messages but my favorite is "Your fortune lies in another cookie".
-In a stand mixer, cream the coconut oil and sugar until light in color and smooth.  Add the egg whites and extracts and beat until incorporated.   This will be extra tricky if you don't have your egg whites at room temperature.  
-Add the tapioca starch, corn starch and salt and beat until a smooth batter forms, you will probably need to scrape down the bowl a few times.
-Oil your parchment with spray oil or a little melted coconut oil.  On one half of the parchment take a little less than a tablespoon of batter and spread it evenly with an offset spatula into an ~4 inch diameter circle.  Repeat on the other side of the baking sheet.  If you don't feel confident about this step you can trace a circle in pencil on the reverse side of your parchment paper to use as a guide or you can make a circle stencil out of thin cardboard (think cereal box) and then spread the batter just inside the template.
-Bake for 4-5 minutes until  light golden brown on edges, bake only 2 cookies at a time.
-Immediately after removing from the oven take a fortune and place it on the center line.  Then fold the cookie in half keeping the folded edge flat and not squashed.  Then bend in the two corners and place the cookie inside a muffin tin cup to keep it from unfolding as it cools.  This does some practice and hands that can take some heat.  This image was helpful for me to learn the fold though if you Google other recipes you'll see a lot of people using coffee cups to help fold.  The coffee cup technique wasn't helpful to me but you may be different.
-Repeat with the remaining batter. Be sure to cool off your cookie sheet and reoil your parchment after each batch.  Do not add fresh batter to a warm cookie sheet.  
-After the cookies have cooled store them in an airtight container.  

Gong Xi Fa Cai!