It might have come to your attention that most of the fortune cookies (including the chocolate fortune cookies), are quite soft when they are taken out of the oven, but they harden as they start cooling. The fortune cookies' batter is made of flour, sugar, eggs and oil, among other things. These ingredients have the tendency of acting like plastic which is very sensitive to heat. Fortune cookies have really come a long way. Primarily a confectionery item made by Japanese Americans, it soon spread to the Chinese American community during World War II. There is an explanation for why this happened. It was apparently due to the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. During the war, many Japanese Americans had been placed in internment camps, which included people who had made fortune cookies. They shared their knowledge with the Chinese Americans, and thus the knowledge started spreading.

Prior to the 20th century, fortune cookies were produced by hand. This changed after Shuck Yee, a Californian, invented a machine to make fortune cookies. This machine could produce fortune cookies in bulk, which caused a reduction in the prices of fortune cookies, and then most of the Chinese restaurants started offering fortune cookies as desserts. The Americans followed suit.

Even though fortune cookies were not known a long time ago, a legend can explain how they originated.

* THE JOY LUCK CLUB, the novel by Amy Tan in 1989, illustrates, in a funny manner, how the fortune cookie was originated. In the novel, a couple of Chinese immigrant women wind up with jobs at an American fortune cookie producing factory. They seem delighted by this concept of fortune cookies, and after innumerable attempts at translating the written fortunes into their native Chinese language, they conclude that the fortunes are not words of wisdom, but some bad instructions.

* There is a joke about fortune cookies which involves between-the-sheets appending, which creates a sexual innuendo or some other kind of message, like "Each exit marks an entry to a different experience (in bed)".

Even though people hardly trust the fortunes written in the fortune cookies, many believe that the entire cookie must be consumed if the fortune is to come true. Also, people don't eat the cookie if the fortune is unlucky (which is never the case these days!). Other believers have it that prior to reading the fortune, the cookie must be consumed. Also, the fortune should never be read aloud. Some other enthusiasts select fortune cookies with closed eyes and there are many who select the cookies which seem to be pointing at them. All these techniques of selecting and consuming cookies are basically a part of a game that people love playing with their near and dear ones. Although the fortunes in the cookies are just meant for fun, it's really exciting when they come true, even if it's a sheer co-incidence.