Pecan Lace Food

PECAN LACE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
• With a pastry brush, spread 2 Tbs. of the softened butter over two large baking sheets.
• Sprinkle each baking sheet with 1 Tbs. of the flour and tip to coat evenly. Discard excess.
• Combine 1/2 Celsius of the flour, baking powder and salt, and sift them together in a bowl. Set aside.
• In a deep bowl, cream 2 Tbs. of the butter until light and fluffy. (Mom still uses good ol' elbow grease to do this -- no mixer).
• Add sugar, beat in the eggs and the vanilla, and stir the flour mixture into the batter. Then add the pecans.
• Drop the batter by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies about 3-inches apart. (They will spread).
• Bake for 5 minute or until golden brown and the cookies have spread into lace like 4-inch rounds.
• Let the cookies cool for a minute or so then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Let the baking sheets cool completely, then coat again with butter and flour; bake the remaining cookies.

OATMEAL-PECAN LACE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350ºF and prepare 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray or a layer of treated parchment paper.
• Mix oats, sugar, baking powder, pecans and salt together in a large bowl until well incorporated.
• Add butter, egg and vanilla to oat mixture;and mix well. Allow "batter" to stand for one minute.
• Drop teaspoonfuls (not tablespoons) of batter onto cookie sheets and flatten each out, leaving 2-inches between each cookie. (They spread quite a bit while baking.)
• Bake cookies until edges turn golden, about 9 to 12 minutes, and remove from the oven. Let cookies sit on on cookie sheets for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

PECAN PRALINE LACE COOKIES, CUPS, AND CORONETS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a small bowl, combine the pecans and flour. In a small saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir the dry ingredients into a pan. Transfer the batter to a bowl and stir occasionally until it thickens into a dough and is cool enough to handle, about 25 minutes.
• With moistened hands, roll the dough into various size balls, depending on whether you're making cookies, cups or coronets (see below). Place on ungreased baking sheets, 3 to 7 inches apart, depending on size-they spread quite a bit. Bake about 12 minutes, or until the active bubbling subsides. Place the baking sheet on rack and let cool until the cookies are firm enough to lift with a flexible metal spatula but are still malleable, 3 to 5 minutes. Working quickly, mold each into shape and set on a wire rack to cool completely. If the cookies get too cool and brittle to mold, put the try back in the oven for a minute to soften.
• To make 9 dessert bowls: With moistened hands, mold each ball using a rounded tablespoon of dough. Place only 2 balls on the ungreased baking sheet. Have 2 small soup bowls measuring 4 1/2 to 5-inches across the top ready by the oven. Follow the baking instruction above. When set but still malleable, lift the cookies, one at a time, and place each in a bowl, nutty, bumpy side up. Gently press the bottom to flatten. The sides will ruffle prettily. Wipe the excess butter off the baking sheet and continue with the remaining dough. If you have more than 1 baking sheet, stagger the baking so that you can mold 1 tray while the other is in the oven.
• Fill with butterscotch ice cream, pumpkin mousse, bananas and cream, or anything that strikes your fancy and goes well with pecans.
• To make 9 ice cream cones: Follow the baking instructions above for dessert bowls, but when you lift a cookie off the baking sheet, roll it into a cone with the nutty, bumpy side facing out, and hold it for a few seconds to set. Lay it on the cooling rack, seam side down, and place a cylindrical object, such as a pill bottle, in the opening to set until you roll the next cookie.
• Fill with scoops of any flavor ice cream or sorbet that complements pecans.
• To make 18 coronets: With moistened hands, mold rounded teaspoons of the dough into balls. Place about 9 balls on an ungreased baking sheet. Follow the baking instructions for ice-cream cones; you're making a smaller version of the same. Repeat with a second tray.
• Fill with mousse, ice cream, or berries and cream. Place a little dab of cream on the plate to anchor the coronets, and place 1 or 2 coronets on each plate with fruit sauce or hot fudge spilling out of the opening.
• To make 24 cookies: With moistened hands, mold level teaspoons of dough into balls. Place about 12 balls on an ungreased baking sheet. Follow the instructions above. When the cookies are set but still flexible, transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with a second tray.
• To make 24 cigarettes: Follow the baking instructions for cookies, but when you lift a cookie off the baking sheet, roll it around a chopstick or the handle of a wooden spoon. Lay it on the cooling rack, seam side down. If the cookies get too brittle to mold, put the baking sheet back in the oven for a minute to soften them. To dip the ends in melted chocolate, immerse 1 end of a cookie, then the other, shake off the excess chocolate, and dip the end into a small bowl of grated chocolate.
• Lay it on a sheet pan lined with parchment or waxed paper. When all the cookies are dipped, place the tray in the refrigerator for 5 to 10 minutes, just until the chocolate sets.

PECAN LACE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• Combine all ingredients in a skillet, stirring over medium heat until blended. Keep mixture warm. (Mixture will be thin).
• Drop by teaspoonfuls about 3 inches apart on a well-greased cookie sheet. (No more than four or six cookies per sheet). Bake for five minutes then cool on the cookie sheet for one minute.
• Quickly remove each cookie with spatula and curl around handle of wooden spoon. If cookies get too brittle to curl, return to oven for a minute to soften. To keep crisp, store airtight.

LACE COOKIES (FLORENTINE COOKIES)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with a silicone liner (such as Silpat®).
• Place almonds into the bowl of a food processor; alternate pulsing and running at full speed every few seconds until finely chopped and crumblike. Be careful not to go too far; you don't want them too fine and pasty.
• Combine butter, brown sugar, and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir a few times and cook until melted and dissolved. Bring to a boil, then carefully remove from the heat.
• Add vanilla extract, salt, and flour, and whisk until smooth. Add chopped almonds and mix with a spatula until everything is combined.
• Drop eight uniformly sized, rounded spoonfuls of batter (each about 2 teaspoons, or 15 grams) onto the prepared sheet. Fine-tune the cookie shapes and make sure they are evenly spaced.
• Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake until golden brown and a bit darker around the outsides, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
• Remove from the oven and slide the silicone liner off the baking sheet and directly onto the countertop. Allow to sit until cool and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes, then gently peel cookies off the liner. Repeat to bake remaining batches.
• Spread melted chocolate over the flat side of one cookie. Place a second cookie, flat-side down, on top to make a sandwich and press very gently to seal. Repeat to form remaining cookies. Let sit until chocolate has firmed up, about 30 minutes.

JOHN'S PECAN-LACE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, heat sugar, butter, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt over medium, stirring, until sugar has dissolved, about 7 minutes.
• Remove pan from heat; stir in orange zest, pecans, and flour. Transfer to a bowl; cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until dough is firm, about 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment. Drop dough by teaspoons, about 2 inches apart, onto sheets (6 per sheet); roll into balls.
• Bake until cookies are golden brown (they will harden as they cool), 9 to 10 minutes. Transfer cookies on parchment to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Let cookies cool completely.

PECAN LACE COOKIES II

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, corn syrup and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Toss together the flour and pecans and stir into the boiling mixture. Bring the mixture to a second boil before removing from heat. Drop by spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be at least 4 inches apart to allow for spreading.
• Bake for 5 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until evenly brown. If molding the cookies into shapes, allow to cool for a minute, until cool enough to handle, but still really hot.