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...

Filling are Sour Cherry Lemon Jam by Earth & Vine Provisions on the left, and my friend Gitte's Tangerine Marmalade, right. Rolled cookies require two extra steps that I try to avoid - refrigeration and rolling.  If I wanted to roll out dough, I'd make a pie.  But I promised to make all these darned cookies, or pretty near all.  Out came the rolling pin. With 2 1/2 cups of oatmeal, you'd imagine a hearty good-for-you cookie that would be representative of the 1940's, when this recipe appeared in Gourmet Magazine . You'd be half right. The cup of butter nixes the healthy thing, and gives these a high-fat pastry texture. This recipe also calls for pastry flour, a low-gluten flour and second-lowest in protein content of the four most common flours (cake, pastry, all purpose, and bread). Pastry flour contributes to a light texture that breaks apart easily. I was never good at reading all the instructions before beginning a task.  I had just added the baking...