12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day Two - Lace Cookies

the second cookie i am tackling is the lace cookie. this is a long standing favorite in my family growing up. i haven't really seen it in recipe books although i'm sure other recipes exist. the only one i have ever used is on a card in the mother's recipe box. she got it from her mother's recipe box. luckily, there isn't a whole lot to change in this recipe. i only changed the white flour to whole wheat pastry flour and substituted half the sugar for agave. i am starting out small. maybe i'll be braver as the days go on.

---

 Lace Cookies - Original Recipe
(make30-35 cookies)

1 stick butter, room temperature
1 c sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c quick oats
3 tbs all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

---

 

Lace Cookies - Slightly Healthier Recipe
(makes 30-35 cookies)

1 stick butter, room temperature
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c agave nectar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c quick oats
3 tbs whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

preheat oven to 350. make sure one rack is in top 1/3 of oven and the second is on the bottom 1/3 of the oven.

cream together butter, sugar, and agave until light a fluffy. add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. add in remaining ingredients and beat until combined.

spray a flat cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil with non-stick cooking spray. drop 1/2 teaspoon size amount of cookie dough onto greased foil (make sure its just a half teaspoon they need to be very small so they spread out and end up super thin - thus the name, lace cookies). place them far apart, no more than 8 per sheet because they spread. as you place cookie sheet into bottom rack of the oven, slide the foil off the sheet so the cookies on the foil are directly on the oven rack. bake for 7 mins until edges start to brown. transfer foil sheet onto cookie sheet and back directly on the top rack (and place another batch of cookies onto bottom rack). bake another 5-7 minutes. the cookies should be lightly browned all over.

remove foil sheet from oven (with a cookie sheet) and let cool before removing from foil. this is very important. the cookies will pull right off the foil when cooled.

---

review:
i am very sad to report that this didn't really work. the cookies are supposed to be very thin and crunchy. i think the agave i used didn't allow it to crisp up. it left them crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. it still makes for a very good cookie but it sticks to the foil in the center so they end up crumbly. still very edible but i recommend sticking to he original recipe. you can absolutely use the whole wheat pastry flour but use sugar. in reality, the lace cookies don't have a lot of sugar (1 cup in almost 4 dozen cookies). plus the oatmeal is very good!

it was disappointing, but i expected some cookies to not be changeable.  i will not be discouraged, i will continue to see what i can tweak.