Lace cookies

For those not in "the know" lace cookies are essentially a cookie that is made of baked caramel and chopped nuts. Due to the wonderful things that happen to sugar when you heat it to certain levels, you end up with these cookies that are light, crispy, immensely tasty, and lacy in appearance. I love chemistry. Perhaps that's why I like baking.

While I don't have the recipe handy, you can find one easily online. However, I actually have a good ingredient shot for you for once. You see before you vanilla, light corn syrup, heavy cream, chopped almonds, salt, butter, flour, and brown sugar. In the back right, you also see a loaf of Trader Joe's sourdough bread. It's not part of this recipe but I highly suggest you check it out if you live anywhere near a Trader Joe's. It makes the best paninis ever. EVAH!















We begin by melting the butter, vanilla, brown sugar, and light corn syrup together.
















At this point, you've essentially made caramel sauce. Don't stop now. Back away from the freezer. This stuff has a higher calling then ice cream.
















Now add your flour. The amount of flour this recipe uses is minuscule.















Add your heavy cream...















Your vanilla...















And finally those chopped almonds. If you don't like almonds, pecans are a common and acceptable alternative.















Baking these is the tricky part. You only put a teaspoon, yes a teaspoon, on a wax or parchment paper covered cookie sheet for each. They spread REALLY thin and if you space them as closely as I did, it will bake into one layer at which point you have to work really quickly to cut them apart before it cools and hardens. There is no room to dilly dally here. Next time I make these I'll try using something to separate them like maybe baking them in mini cake pans or a large muffin pan...
















This is the finished product. As you can see, very thin and lacy.
















I also had this idea of making some into lace cookie sandwiches with melted chocolate, an idea I stole from Trader Joe's... I made a huge mess and only did this to about half of them. Next time, I'll use something like a squeeze bottle. Hindsight is indeed 20/20.















Here are the cooled lace cookie sandwiches though. So good they should be illegal.















This coming weekend I'm making Chinese food, I think. Cashew Chicken and my attempt to crack the secret of a noodle dish available only at once place in Pittsburgh. If it works, you'll get two posts.

L'Chaim!