Hot Cookie - the Archive

Sandwich cookies with more oats than Irish. What makes an Irish coffee cookie? Coffee, Irish whiskey and cream would be my guess. They are all ingredients in this cookie's sandwich layers and in the filling. Sounds like the start of a creamy-smooth coffee dessert with a kick, right? You'd be wrong. This was the '70's, remember. Back to nature. Granola reached the mainstream. Whole grains were worshiped. These cookies were victims of the era. The first problem is the heavy dough. It contains twice as much oats as flour. Doesn't that take you back? I really should have stopped right there, thrown in some raisins and nuts, and let them be the oatmeal cookies they longed to be. But no, I trudged on. Is it dough or continental drift?  Oh, there go Iceland and Greenland. Or is that Australia and New Zealand? I dutifully rolled out the dough. It became a lesson in continental drift on my counter. I massaged it back together and tried to cut entertaining shapes...

Light, lemony, and hardly any calories per cookie. My dad planted a Meyer lemon bush in our back yard before I was old enough to notice that it didn't always grace the northwest corner. Each time I have visited, I have filled empty space in my suitcase with as many lemons as would fit. Thank you, Southwest, for letting me check that heavy bag! At home I would wash the best ones to keep for zesting and to cut slices for iced tea, whiskey sours and the like. The big ones, with less than beautiful skin, I'd squeeze, then freeze the juice in ice cube trays. I'd have the best acidic flavoring for soups, sauces, pies, seafood. Really, almost anything tastes better with lemon juice. Not much batter means really thin cookies. Lemon Thins are cookies pretty much made of lemon zest. OK, there is sugar and flour and butter, but not much. Notice that the batter, with all ingredients added, doesn't reach the widest part of the mixing bowl. Yet, the recipe makes four (count...