The time has come to share the cookies that I sent three great ladies:

• Lauren of Keep It Sweet
• Angie of Big Bears Wife
• Felice of  BlogChickaBowow

It’s still appalling for me to think about having even thought about how gross sugar was. What in the world was that baby doing to me? I love sugar!

Anyway…back to the cookies.

I was dumb and decided to choose the most delicate cookie I’ve ever made to ship all over the country to these three lovely ladies. As far as I know from them, they didn’t get damaged in shipping! Thank you USPS, for finally not tossing my priority mail box, that has FRAGILE written over every inch, around like a soccer ball. 😉

Well, these cookies are one of my favorites. I always look forward to having them at Christmas time. They are technically just my Moms’ Oatmeal Lace Cookies with dark chocolate sandwiched in the middle, but they make for an exceptional mock florentine cookie!

The cookies are light, delicate, and slightly chewy. With the chocolate in the middle, the burst of bittersweet chocolate mixed with the sweet cookie, makes for one heck of a good cookie. I made a bunch extra so we could all make sure they were just right. They passed the test and didn’t last very long in our kitchen!

 

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

adapted from Chocolate & Carrots

Ingredients

• 6-7 ounces butterscotch chips
• 3/4 cup salted butter
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips

How-To

1. In a medium pot, melt the butterscotch chips and margarine over low heat.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Combine boiling water and baking soda in a small bowl.
4. Add baking soda water to pot.
5. Add the oatmeal, flour and sugar.
6. Preheat oven to 350°.
7. Drop (drop doesn’t mean to shape them into a ball, just drop them…this allows them to be lacey) by teaspoon (AND NO MORE) onto ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for about 7 minutes or until light brown.
9. Set the cookie sheet on a cooling rack and let cool for about 1 minute (This is the tricky part. You have to work with your sharp metal spatula at this point and work it under different cookies until they come up and can be quickly transferred to the cooling rack without falling through the wire. Once they are ready to be transferred to the cooling rack, work quickly to get them all off the cookie sheet so that they don’t harden and break when you try to get them off. (This may take a couple of tries.) Don’t worry, though, they are totally worth it. They are sooo good.
10. Next, match up the cookies in pairs of like sizes.
11. Melt the chocolate either in the microwave, stirring every 15 seconds, or over a double boiler.
12. Spread 1/2-1 teaspoon of the melted chocolate in between two cookies.
13. Let the chocolate on the cookie sandwiches harden.
14. Store in an air tight container for up to 1 week.

Servings: almost 4 dozen florentines