Orange Lace Cookies
I consider cookies to be the comfort food of desserts. The aroma of fresh baked cookies often evokes childhood memories. They can be created to appease all tastes, and they are generally easy to make! But don’t count cookies out as boring or predictable–sometimes they can surprise you!
Drop or scoop cookies are the type most people usually think of first – chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, etc. Cut out sugar cookies, elaborately decorated, have recently surged in popularity, allowing many “cookie-ers” to start successful businesses based on their artistic designs alone. Lace cookies are less common, but get points for both taste and appearance!
What are they…
Lace cookies are a cross between a stencil and a molded cookie. Stencil batters are spread thin on a silpat (sometimes with a stencil–hence the name). Molded cookies are shaped right after baking, while they are hot and pliable, like fortune cookies! Leaving these flat is fine because they are decorative with the lacey pattern, but shaping them is a great way to add some dimension and height to your dessert!
This batter is suuuuper simple to make. Only a bowl and whisk are required. No need to break out the stand mixer, just weigh out your ingredients and mix until there’s no butter pooling on the sides of the bowl. Once you’ve ensured the butter has been completely emulsified, or mixed in to the batter, pop a lid on and toss it in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.
Making them…
These bake in small batches, so allow extra time for the process. The batter is going to spread during baking, so avoid placing them too close together. I found it easiest to drop a tiny amount of batter (about a teaspoon) onto the silpat, then use the back of a spoon to spread it out. The key is to make sure it’s even and thin so they bake evenly and are nice and crispy. The picture below shows how the batter is so thin you can see the markings on the mat. That’s what you’re looking for!
While these bake, they form the tiny network of holes that give the appearance of lace. When they have a nice even golden color, remove them from the oven but resist the urge to start shaping them right away. They need about a minute to set up enough to hold together, but not get so cool that they aren’t pliable. If you’ve ever worked with tuile paste, they are very similar to that. If they do get too hard to form, you can pop them back in the oven for about 30 seconds and re-shape right away!
Shape ideas…
Now sure, they’re pretty enough to leave flat, but what fun is that?! Pipe or spread the batter into a straight line and twist them into spirals around a pencil or wooden dowel. Lay them over a rolling pin for a simple curved “pringles” look, or drape them over the bottom of a small glass to form an edible bowl! Maybe fold them in half and make dessert taco shells! There are just so. many. options.
If you aren’t quite sure what shape you want, or maybe how to get the shape you want, you can experiment with paper first to give you the best idea of what size you need and how to shape it, since you’ll have to work quickly with the batter! This recipe will yield plenty of product to practice with while still having enough for the final batch, so have fun with it!
Once these cookies are cooled completely, handle with care! They’re brittle and fragile, which is great for design and texture but not so great if you drop one. They need to be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Humidity will make them droop, so keep them dry, dry, dry!
This week’s Feature Dessert
I’m using this crispy, rolled up cookie as the garnish and crunchy element for my Feature Dessert, an Orange Blueberry Cheesecake Dessert Shooter. This personal sized dessert has a layer of moist citrus-scented cake, thick but airy blueberry cheesecake mousse, finished off with a rolled orange lace cookie that can even serve as a utensil. It’s like a tiny glass of summer, that’s fun to eat!
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Orange Lace Cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g sugar
- 47 g flour
- 52 g orange juice
- 50 g butter melted
- 4 g orange zest
Instructions
- Combine flour and sugar in small bowl; set aside
- Add orange zest and juice to flour and stir until very smooth
- Whisk in melted butter until completely incorporated, and there is no butter pooling on the edges.
- Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 horus, or overnight
- Preheat oven to 350
- Spread desired amount of batter into desired shape, with at least 2 inches between each one.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until an even golden color.
- Remove from oven, rest for 1 minutes.
- Carefully remove from pan and shape as desired
- Return to oven for 30 seconds if they get too cool and become unable to shape.
