Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Lacey Cookies

Part of making a marriage work is learning how to blend the cultures of your families of origin.  Around the holidays, this becomes especially apparent.  While it can be difficult, there are many positive aspects as well.

Like the acquisition of new recipes!

While the holiday treats repertoire in my family of origin was expansive and diverse, somehow we missed out on these cookies!  Good thing I married Tim!  This is one of his family's favorite Christmas cookies.

My friends, it is with much pleasure that introduce you to... Lacey Cookies.


Lacey Cookies, these are my friends.  Friends, these are Lacey Cookies.


Here's what you need: salt, one beaten egg, oats, sugar, a teensy bit of flour, butter, and vanilla.

The tiny bit of flour does help hold the cookies together a little bit, but this might be one recipe where you could easily substitute something else, thus making them gluten-free with no noticeable change in texture.  I may have to look into this.


Put your dry ingredients in a bowl.  These are so easy, we don't even need a mixer.



Melt your butter.  I seriously considered browning the butter (because almost any recipe can be improved by using browned-butter--am I right, or am I right?), but realized that the way these bake up, the butter kind of ends up getting browned anyway.  It might be worth future experimentation.


Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and give it a good stir.  Since there's not a ton of flour, I'm not too worried about over-working the dough.  Also, it really doesn't take much stirring.  Also, its more of a batter than a dough.



See how its kinda runny?  You might think you did something wrong, but you didn't.  It's supposed to be like that.  Trust me.



Take a tiny (and I really mean tiny-- I used a teaspoon to measure, but probably should have used a 1/2 teaspoon) scoop of the dough/ batter, and plop it on a foil-lined baking sheet.



If you're cheap like me, your frugal self may be saying "You don't need to line the sheets, just grease them really well.  No point in using all of that foil."  DON'T LISTEN TO YOUR FRUGAL SELF.  The Frugal Self is a lie.  At least right now.  The foil is crucial.




Bake these little wonders until they are on the more brown side of golden-brown.  If you under-bake these, they will turn out too soft.  Which basically is a total fail.  Trust me. 

Mine took somewhere between 9 and 10 minutes.  When you pull them out, pull the foil (with the cookies attached) off the pan and set it on a cooling rack.  Or toaster oven.  Or microwave.  Basically anywhere you can find to set it-- it doesn't even really have to be a flat surface, because the cookies really stick to the foil (I know things can get kind of crazy in the kitchen when it's time for Christmas cookies.  It happens to the best of us).

Once they are COMPLETELY cooled, it will be time to remove them from the foil.  




PRO TIP:  It's actually more like removing the foil from the cookie.  Enter, Physics:  The cookie is rigid, the foil is flexible, so peel the foil from the back of the cookie.  

If you have trouble getting it off all in one piece, they are either under-done, or not quite cooled.



Allow this natural light to illustrate why they are called Lacey Cookies.  Because they're kind of lacey. Get it?



Given my well-documented love for oatmeal, it should come as no surprise that I love these.  I hope you love them, too!

Lacey Cookies

  • 1 c oatmeal
  • 1 c sugar
  • 1/4 t baking powder (totally forgot this when I was baking them and didn't notice until now)
  • 2 T + 1 t flour
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 stick melted butter
  • 2 T vanilla
Mix dry ingredients.  Add melted butter, egg, and vanilla.  Bake on foil on pan at 350 for 9-10 minutes.  Remove from foil when completely cooled.

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