Fortune Cookie Pie

I set out to make an Hong Kong egg tart in a fortune cookie crust.  I made the crust using the same technique used for a graham cracker crust (20 cookies, 4 tablespoons of butter, and 1/4 cup of sugar baked for 5 minutes at 400oF); however, due to the difference in texture of fortune cookies it did not work out how I had planned.  If I try a fortune cookie crust in the future, I will try using a whole stick of butter instead of just half.

For the filling, I found a recipe for ginger egg tarts and substituted the water for orange juice.  I did this for three reasons: 1) I think orange and ginger go really well together. 2) I wanted to up the complexity of flavor without destroying the balance. 3) I love orange chicken, so it is one of my favorite Chinese takeout flavors.  Making the filling was easy:

3/4 cup of orange juice

1/3 cup of sugar

handful of chopped ginger

4 eggs

1/2 cup of evaporated milk

You heat the orange juice, sugar, and ginger until the sugar dissolves.  Let it cool a bit before straining it into the four beaten eggs.  Then add the evaporated milk and strain into the crust.
I then sprinkled a little Chinese five spice over the top.  Almost immediately, pieces of fortune cookie began to float to the top.

By the time it had baked at 350oF for 20 minutes, been rotated, and baked at 250oF for another 25 minutes, much more fortune cookie had come to the surface.  I honestly thought that the pie was ruined and was going to be one big mushy mess.

About half of the crumbs floated all the way to the top, making a kind of top crust, and the other half stayed on the bottom.  Plus, I still had the soft delicate custard filling on the middle.  It was not what I had planned, but it turned out awesome.  I would definitely make it again, hoping that my happy accident repeats itself.

Piece out!
Justin