Almond Oat Lace Cookies

I decided I have had enough chocolate chip cookies and should try something new this Christmas. So I stumbled upon the Almond-Oat Lace Cookies in Food and Wine Magazine. I should have known better than to attempt a cookie in a gourmet magazine but I tried anyways. While this recipe seemed easy enough I turned out with Almond-Oat Sticks instead of cookies. But if there is one thing this year has taught me it is that you cannot control everything and when life gives you lemons make lemonade. Below is the recipe and the not so perfect desert I turned out with!

Ingredients: (For 24 cookies, I doubled the recipe when I made it)

1/2 cup whole natural unsalted almond with skins

2 tbsp old-fashioned oats

6 tbsp unsalted butter

6 tbsp superfine sugar

2 tbsp light brown packed sugar

1 1/2 tsp honey

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp kosher salt

4 oz bittersweet chocolate melted

 Directions:

1. Arrange racks in lower and upper thirds of oven. Preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Correct Rack Placement

2. Pulse almonds and oats in a food processor until coarse meal forms. Set aside.

Before Pulsing

3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

4. Add both sugars and honey; whisk until blended and sugar dissolves (1-2 minutes).

5. Remove from heat. Add nut mixture, flour, and salt; stir until well blended.

6. Spoon batter by 2 tsp portions onto baking sheets, spacing 2 1/2" apart. Using your fingertips, pat cookies down to 1/4" high rounds; push in any jagged edges to form smooth circles.

NOTE: This is where I started going wrong. These cookies are way too big! They ended up as a sheet of cookies. See below pictures of disaster!

7. Bake, rotating sheets after 6 minutes, until dark golden brown and cookies spread out into a thin layer, 10-12 minutes. Slide cookies onto wire rack.


This is what happens when you spoon too large of cookies onto baking sheet!

Trying to save my cookies.....

Deciding they shouldn't be cookies but snack size sticks

So I thought I had learned from my previous mistakes and made my cookies much smaller. Well the size worked well but this time my cookies were burnt. So make sure to watch the time when baking them as they burn very quickly.

On the left my burnt cookie!

8. Using a pastry brush, brush half of each cookie with melted chocolate. Let stand until the chocolate is set, about 2 hours.

NOTE: I decided not to brush the sticks but instead drizzled the sticks with chocolate.

Delicious Chocolate



My drizzled chocolate bars


So, while the end result was very different than what I originally intended to do they are still delicious. If you decide to make them and would like a few more tips please feel free to ask. I would love to apply what I learned during this cookie fiasco!