Ok, so I admit it.
If I see someone on tv doing something fancy with food some little piece of me stands up, throws her flour covered arms in the arm, waves them around (like she just don't care), and screams..."HEY!!!! WE can do THAT!!!"
Sunday while we were getting ready to leave my parents house, my mother was watching some chick on the Cooking Channel (not the Food Network, some other satellite cooking channel), who was dressed in WAY too much beige, make ice cream. Eh, whatever...I've done ice cream. No big woop.
But then...she started melting butter and corn syrup AND brown sugar together on the stove. Ok, you had me at butter.
I started watching and became intrigued...especially when she started whisking in flour. Whoa. Beautiful. Seriously.
She kept talking about something or other lace. What? Looks like liquid heaven to me, not lace.
So then she expertly drops a teaspoon full of this stuff on a cookie sheet and puts it in the oven. About 5 minutes later (Ya know, 30 seconds in TV land.) she pulls the cookie sheet out of the oven and has these flat bubbly brown things. Ok, where did the beautiful liquid stuff go???
Then...she pulls one of these gooey things up and rolls it around a tube. Whoa. Nice. But she decides she likes them flat cause you can see the "lace" better and then proceeds to stick one in a bowl of ice cream. Ok, I'm sold...these must be made and conquered.
Which I did.
French Lace cookies are not only beautiful, but they feel beautiful while eating them. They crunch and melt in your mouth. A lot like toffee or some kind of brittle might do. Only it has this carmalized sugar taste because it's cookied and THEN baked. Yum.
But you know how in your mind you see something and you think, whoa, that must be REALLY complicated. Yeah, I've seen these things before...stuck in other desserts or ice cream or whatever...and thought...hehe, someone must have taken A LOT of time. Wow, was I wrong.
These took me all total about 1/2 an hour. It would have taken me longer had I not just decided to make caramel corn with the batter instead. And it's not cause I didn't like the cookies or anything, but really, what am I going to do with 5 dozen French Lace cookies????? I made about a dozen then decided that cooking 3 cookies at a time was going to take me all day and that I could easily repurpose this caramel into something that would get eaten a lot faster.
Ohhhhlala's
1 Stick of Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup
2/3 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 Cup Flour
(Yeah, I know...4 ingredients. I was amazed too.)
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line your cookie sheets with parchment or grease them REALLY well. You want to be able to remove these cookies while still fairly warm.
Over medium heat melt the butter, corn syrup, and brown sugar together. Bring to a boil, or until the mixture starts to "climb" the sides of your sauce pan. Remove from heat and slowly whisk in your flour. I added my flour very slowly as to not get flour lumps in my batter.
Once everything is nicely whisked together, drop by teaspoon fulls about 4 inches apart on your cookie sheets. These are going to spread like mad and it sort of kills the beautiful brown edges if they end up touching.
Cook for about 5-8 minutes or until the edges are brown and the middles are all bubbly. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before trying to remove and then cool completely on a wire rack. If you want to shape these into something else, you have to move fast and be prepared to burn your finger tips. I wrapped one around a wooden spoon...it didn't turn out too pretty and The Dictator claimed it and ate it. I also made a "dish" out of one by placing a still hot cookie over the bottom of a mis en place dish and sort of molding it around the glass. Once the cookie was hard it just sort of slid off and I was left with a little cookie dish. Pretty cool...if you're into things like that. But that being said, it WOULD be adorable with a scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream in it.
And now when the day comes that I host a fancy dinner party, you'll know the secret to my ultra cute and fancy dessert.
If I see someone on tv doing something fancy with food some little piece of me stands up, throws her flour covered arms in the arm, waves them around (like she just don't care), and screams..."HEY!!!! WE can do THAT!!!"
Sunday while we were getting ready to leave my parents house, my mother was watching some chick on the Cooking Channel (not the Food Network, some other satellite cooking channel), who was dressed in WAY too much beige, make ice cream. Eh, whatever...I've done ice cream. No big woop.
But then...she started melting butter and corn syrup AND brown sugar together on the stove. Ok, you had me at butter.
I started watching and became intrigued...especially when she started whisking in flour. Whoa. Beautiful. Seriously.
She kept talking about something or other lace. What? Looks like liquid heaven to me, not lace.
So then she expertly drops a teaspoon full of this stuff on a cookie sheet and puts it in the oven. About 5 minutes later (Ya know, 30 seconds in TV land.) she pulls the cookie sheet out of the oven and has these flat bubbly brown things. Ok, where did the beautiful liquid stuff go???
Then...she pulls one of these gooey things up and rolls it around a tube. Whoa. Nice. But she decides she likes them flat cause you can see the "lace" better and then proceeds to stick one in a bowl of ice cream. Ok, I'm sold...these must be made and conquered.
Which I did.
French Lace cookies are not only beautiful, but they feel beautiful while eating them. They crunch and melt in your mouth. A lot like toffee or some kind of brittle might do. Only it has this carmalized sugar taste because it's cookied and THEN baked. Yum.
But you know how in your mind you see something and you think, whoa, that must be REALLY complicated. Yeah, I've seen these things before...stuck in other desserts or ice cream or whatever...and thought...hehe, someone must have taken A LOT of time. Wow, was I wrong.
These took me all total about 1/2 an hour. It would have taken me longer had I not just decided to make caramel corn with the batter instead. And it's not cause I didn't like the cookies or anything, but really, what am I going to do with 5 dozen French Lace cookies????? I made about a dozen then decided that cooking 3 cookies at a time was going to take me all day and that I could easily repurpose this caramel into something that would get eaten a lot faster.
Ohhhhlala's
1 Stick of Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup
2/3 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 Cup Flour
(Yeah, I know...4 ingredients. I was amazed too.)
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line your cookie sheets with parchment or grease them REALLY well. You want to be able to remove these cookies while still fairly warm.
Over medium heat melt the butter, corn syrup, and brown sugar together. Bring to a boil, or until the mixture starts to "climb" the sides of your sauce pan. Remove from heat and slowly whisk in your flour. I added my flour very slowly as to not get flour lumps in my batter.
Once everything is nicely whisked together, drop by teaspoon fulls about 4 inches apart on your cookie sheets. These are going to spread like mad and it sort of kills the beautiful brown edges if they end up touching.
Cook for about 5-8 minutes or until the edges are brown and the middles are all bubbly. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before trying to remove and then cool completely on a wire rack. If you want to shape these into something else, you have to move fast and be prepared to burn your finger tips. I wrapped one around a wooden spoon...it didn't turn out too pretty and The Dictator claimed it and ate it. I also made a "dish" out of one by placing a still hot cookie over the bottom of a mis en place dish and sort of molding it around the glass. Once the cookie was hard it just sort of slid off and I was left with a little cookie dish. Pretty cool...if you're into things like that. But that being said, it WOULD be adorable with a scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream in it.
And now when the day comes that I host a fancy dinner party, you'll know the secret to my ultra cute and fancy dessert.