What cookie contains a paper fortune inside?

The cookie that contains a paper fortune inside is a fortune cookie.

A fortune cookie is a crisp, folded wafer typically made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil, often sesame oil. While the cookie is still warm and flexible, a small printed message is inserted and the wafer is bent into its familiar folded shape. As it cools, it hardens around the paper.

Despite its association with Chinese restaurants in the United States and other countries, the fortune cookie is not generally considered Chinese in origin. Its history is disputed, but similar Japanese cookies existed in Kyoto by the nineteenth century. Japanese immigrants in California helped popularize the modern form in the early twentieth century, including through San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden.

The messages may be aphorisms, vague predictions, Chinese phrases with translations, or lucky numbers. The cookie’s identity is therefore defined by the enclosed fortune, not simply by its shape or sweetness. Oreo, biscotti, and macarons are distinct cookies and do not have the defining paper message.