#19 Lace Cookies 1957

First batch (top) with rounded edges due to parchment;
second batch with fading edges baked on buttered sheet.

I remember making lace cookies as a teenager. Probably got the recipe from the newspaper. They consisted of brown sugar and butter. I swear that's all. OK, maybe something else--it didn't really matter what else. I was in love with the cookies that bubbled in a hot oven and spread out on the cookie sheet, creating see-through holes in a crisp wafer that trailed to nothing at the edges.

They were the most "different" cookies I'd seen in my young life. Delicate and not so good for storing on top of each other (they'd break or stick together), they'd have to be consumed in a fantasy binge with milk or ice cream.

Based on the photo, I expected the Gourmet Lace Cookie recipe to tempt me to the same kind of binge. I expected the batter to spread out and bubble  No such luck. Instead, these spread into flat cookies with rounded edges and no bubble holes.

Second batch, with thin edges, but bubbles only on top.

The good news is that like the cookies of my youth, they melted in the mouth. The almonds provide a subtle nutty flavor and texture. Just not as pretty going in.

I suspected my parchment paper was to blame for the shape and textural differences and tried a batch on a buttered cookie sheet. This time, they spread out to nothing at the edges, as expected, but still no bubbly lace texture.

Last batch, with break-apart edges, but no
see-through bubbles.

I floated yet another hypothesis. Maybe my insulated cookie sheet did not allow the cookies to heat to the bubbling point. I still didn't use a thin cookie sheet. I heated the oven a bit hotter and put the insulated cookie sheet on the bottom oven rack. This time, the edges broke apart, but the cookie centers barely made bubbly holes on top, not all the way through the cookie. Do I really have to go back to an old, thin cookie sheet?

The recipe is here. If you search the web for lace cookies, you may not find many photos of a texture similar to the one in the Gourmet Cookie Book (book photo here). In the first 3 pages of my Google search, only a few photos were posted, and only one of those approached a lacy texture.