These are light, airy, crunchy--a total contrast with the Raspberry Shortbread I posted about a couple of days ago, but dipped in a bit of chocolate and decorated with some sprinkles, they make an amazing and delicious addition to any holiday cookie platter!

When I was a little girl and people would bring bakery cookies to our house, I always gravitated to the lace cookies. Those were the fancy ones! Not only did they taste buttery and sweet and have that wonderful crunchiness, but they were different from any other kind of cookie my mom baked or bought. They were bumpy and filled with little airy pockets. See what I mean--

Now, you can recreate them at home and I think these taste even better!

This is a pretty straight-forward recipe. You mix the dry ingredients together, the wet ingredients together, add the dry to the wet and then drop onto cookie sheets.

Then you bake them for only about 7 minutes and they magically transform--

Once they're cooled you can leave them as is--they're delish, but let's face it, you know you're going to like them better dipped in melted chocolate and sprinkles!! Again, this is so so easy. You just melt some chocolate in a wide-mouthed mug in the microwave (I used semisweet and white chocolate for variety's sake, and then you dip about 1/3 of the cookie in, allowing the excess to drip off. Then you place them on wax paper to dry and shake on some sprinkles.

In about half an hour, they're ready to go. The original recipe called for the addition of a teaspoon of cinnamon which though good, seemed a little overpowering for my taste, so I remade these leaving the cinnamon out and I think they're better that way. I also reduced the amount of honey, because I felt that flavor also seemed a little too prominent and made the cookies overly sweet, especially with the addition of the chocolate and sprinkles.

My whole family LOVED these and I know I've found a permanent new addition to the repertoire. So if you're passing around a tray of assorted Christmas cookies and these cookies are on the plate, you can guess what I'm reaching for first (and second, they're too good to eat just one!!)

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Makes 40-45 cookies

Prep Time:  10 minutes; Bake Time:  7-9 minutes; Frost Time:  10 minutes; Total:  30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons 1% milk
• 1 tablespoon honey (you can add up to 2 tablespoons in total if you really love honey)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5-6 oz. chopped chocolate (optional)
• sprinkles (optional)

The Recipe

1.  Preheat oven to 375ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.  Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and oats in a bowl and set aside.

3.  Using an electric mixer beat together the melted butter, milk, honey and vanilla until smooth, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add flour mixture a few spoonfuls at a time, mixing just to combine and scraping down bowl.

4.  Use a level teaspoon and drop cookies on prepared sheets, leaving plenty of room in between because these spread as they cook. You can safely fit 12 on a sheet at one time.

5.  Bake for 6-9 minutes, checking early to see when cookies are completely flat and golden brown, but not too dark. You want the cookies to be evenly golden brown all over and well cooked or they will be chewy, not crunchy.

6.  Remove from oven and let cool on pan on a rack for 2-3 minutes. You should be able to peel cookies off paper easily. If not, let them cool another minute or so. Transfer to racks to finish cooling completely. Repeat with rest of the batter. 

7.  Lay a sheet of wax paper out on the counter. Place chopped chocolate in a wide-mouthed mug. Melt in microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat. If chocolate is not totally melted by now, continue to do so but in 10 second increments--you don't want to burn it. (if you're using two kinds of chocolate, do one first and then melt the other when you're ready to use it. You want the chocolate to be very spreadable.)

8.  Dip cookies 1/3 of the cookie into the melted chocolate, then place on the wax paper and decorate with the sprinkles. Allow to harden and then peel off and store in an airtight container.

9.  Cookies keep for about 1 week in an airtight container.

Note:  Recipe adapted from Skinnytaste, I omitted the cinnamon and cut the honey in half.  http://www.skinnytaste.com/2014/12/white-chocolate-oatmeal-lace-cookies.html