Spring

Buttery Lemony Lace Cookies

February 20, 2011
4.7
3 Ratings
Photo by Mark Weinberg
  • Makes 3 dozen
Author Notes

These lace cookies contain ground almonds, by the way. I love almonds, they’re good and good for you! They’re good for your heart and packed with antioxidants and nutrients.

I found a great recipe for classic lace cookies, but decided to take a fresh and uplifting spin on it by adding freshly grated lemon zest to the batter. —Allison from Haute Box

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup raw ground almonds
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup organic unrefined sugar
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose wheat flour
  • 1 pinch of sea salt
  • Zest from one lemon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the butter, sugar and corn syrup. Stir often until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high, stir constantly and bring to a boil. Once the contents begin to boil, remove from the heat. Stir in the flour and salt until well incorporated. Finally, stir in the ground almonds, lemon zest and vanilla extract.
  3. Using a teaspoon, drop the batter onto the baking sheet. Bake the cookies until evenly light brown, about 10 minutes. At the 5-minute mark, turn the baking sheet around in the oven to ensure even baking. The cookies won’t begin to spread till about 6 minutes into baking.
  4. Cover a cooling rack with paper towels. When the cookies are done baking, place them on the paper-toweled covered wire rack and let cool.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

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    Nancy

55 Reviews

Lana December 18, 2018
Help! I made them today and had some issue. They were too oily. The flavor is so good. But the butter left cookies oily. Even after I placed them on the paper towel.
Did anyone have that issue? What shell I do?
I did substitute whole wheat flour for regular one. Maybe that is the issue?
 
Charlie December 5, 2017
Hi Allison!
By ground almonds, can I use almond flour or do they still need their
nutty consistency?
 
Greenstuff December 5, 2017
I used almond flour and they came out just like the picture.
 
Charlie December 5, 2017
Thank you so much Greenstuff :~D
 
stevemr February 7, 2017
By "wheat flour" do you mean whole wheat flour? Or just regular all purpose flour?
 
MicronCat September 27, 2016
Can you please clarify on the almonds - are we talking rough grind, like a food processor, or fine grind like a coffee grinder? I have both. Thanks!
 
Gal May 4, 2016
Amazing recipe for these delicate and elegant cookies. They came out paper thin and light as air, they were nutty, lacy and crisp, melting in your mouth at first bite, with a delicious soft toffee-like flavors.
I used 2 tablespoons of raw honey (Instead of corn syrup) and 5 tablespoons cubed non-dairy buttery sticks from Earth balance (Instead of butter). I added 1/3 cup (uncooked) rolled oats (Because oats are really good for you) and I LOVED that this recipe calls for only 1/3 cup sugar (I think we eat to much sugar these days). The cookies came out perfect and not too sweet.
One thing to remember: in step 1 Allison says to "line a baking sheet with parchment paper" - This is a crucial step. On these liners (silicone baking mat also works well), the cookies spread thinly, bake evenly, and come up easily. On step 2 Allison instruct to combine the butter, sugar and corn syrup and "bring to a boil", which is essential. This boiling reduces the traces of water found in the butter and corn syrup. Without the boiling, the excess water would cause the cookies to run all over the place. The ingredients only need to boil briefly. You don’t need to cook them to any particular temperature. Take the pan off the heat soon after you see bubbles and stir in the dry ingredients.
Bake 1 pan at a time, and watch carefully, opening the oven door if necessary, to be sure the cookies don't burn (My cookies were done in exactly 7 minutes!)
 
PattandJoni G. August 14, 2017
did you replace any ingredient for the 1/3 cup of rolled oats that you used?
 
Gal August 14, 2017
No. The 1/3 cup of rolled oats were additional ingredient I decided to add.
 
Maedl May 3, 2016
Could you shape these cookies into 'saddles' by draping them over a jar or rolling pin as soon as you remove them from the oven? I am thinking of recreating a cookie I had years ago which we filled with whipped cream and stawberries.
 
Gal May 4, 2016
Hi Margie, If you plan to shape the cookies, carefully remove the cookies from the baking sheet while still warm and soft and then drape them over a small overturned glass. For a tuile, lay the cookies over a rolling pin. As soon as the cookies cool enough to become rigid, remove them from the mold, and they’ll hold their shape. If the cookies on the baking sheet get too firm before you’re done shaping them, pop them back into the hot oven for a minute.
 
Maedl May 4, 2016
Thanks--I am going to give this a try. I think it is perfect for strawberry season!
 
liz April 21, 2015
I made these today and they are delicious. They definitely spread a LOT and cook quickly. For my oven, 8 minutes was perfect. Now that I have it down I'm looking forward to trying it with orange zest and grand marnier as suggested by a previous post.
 
lucbzh March 7, 2015
I just made them today. I substituted the corn sirup with honey 1:1, used orange zest and added a tablespoon of grand marnier. They are delicious and look like the one on the picture.
 
Linda March 4, 2015
Not clear....do you remove the cookies from the sheet to the paper towel or leave them on the cookie sheet to cool?
 
Greenstuff March 4, 2015
You remove them from the cookie sheet and place them on the paper towel to cool.
 
Noelle March 14, 2017
When I put them on paper towel they stuck to it. I just put them on a cooling rack.
 
Kathy December 15, 2014
I love these cookies, but I find that in my high-humidity climate that they often don't get lacy all over, only on the edges.
 
B A. December 13, 2014
Made these yesterday. No corn syrup, but used organic maple syrup and they came out very well. They spread quit a bit, so give them room on the pan. To the author, thank you for the recipe, I was looking for something a little different then regular old Christmas cookies, and these did the trick. I did chuckle at bit about the good for your heart comment, almonds yes, butter, no.
 
Gal May 3, 2016
I agree butter is not good for your heart. I made these with non-dairy buttery spread (I used soy-free Earth balance).

 
nutcakes November 23, 2014
I ran across a shout out to Allison and Food52 re this recipe in the King Arthur Holiday catalog. The KA adaption uses KA GF flour in place of regular and the flavoring are orange peel, cinnamon and a little optional orange extract. I decided to make yours and they came out great. Make exactly as written, but they cooked quicker, more like 8 minutes. Be careful because they over cook easily. At first my oven was not quite up to temp and they didn't have the lace look, but at the end they looked just like your picture. These will be delicious with a cup of tea and would work very well as part of a cookie assortment plate. They are a little greasy to the touch, does that just come with the territory?
 
Deborah B. September 2, 2014
I tried to make them gluten free and corn syrup free; I used maple syrup, coconut flour and coconut sugar. They did not spread at all, but the 2nd batch I pressed them flat (like a peanut butter cookie) and pressed a blanched slivered almond into the top of each one. They are very delicious though not florentine style at all.
 
rob W. July 29, 2014
Bet these would be excellent for ice cream sandwiches....trying to track down your carrot cake.
 
rocombo April 27, 2014
Yes, Debra, I've tried that and it works out fine. The cookies spread out just the same. One thing - the recipe I've always used calls for sliced almonds rather than ground ones. They're delicious this way too!
 
Debra W. April 27, 2014
How about using a Silpat instead of parchment? I would think that would work, bu wondered if you had tried it.
 
Rosie C. April 19, 2014
Just made these today. Delicious!!! If you make sure to only use a teaspoon sized amount, then they wont melt together. Seems like nothing but they really spread. And mine only cooked for about 5.5 minutes total. If you cook them so just the edges have browned, then you still get the nice lemony flavor. One of my new favorites.
 
Nancy April 11, 2014
I really want to make these soon. Does anyone know if I can substitute Agave for the Corn Syrup?
 
Dyanne April 11, 2014
I realized later i put in a tad too much corn syrup, hence the
'one pan" wonders. Florentine-type cookies are unforgiving in relation to proportions
 
Marykay F. April 11, 2014
I made these exactly per the recipe and not only didn't they spread for the lace effect but they were tough. What did I do wrong?
 
Estefania M. April 8, 2014
How u can make the cookies look so good finally? Any advice or special way to spread the batter on the baking sheet? Thanks!
 
Denise M. April 7, 2014
Thanks for the information Ruth, here in Australia our butter doesn't come so marked as we work mostly in weight rather than volume, except for dry ingredients, such as flour, in cups.
 
Ami April 11, 2014
I hear you. When I moved to the US two decades ago, I was confused why tablespoons were ever used to measure butter. And oz and lb . . . A stick of butter in my country doesn't come in the US size either.
1 American stick of butter = 8tbs = 4oz = 113g
That would make 5tbs of butter = 70.6g
 
Nancy April 7, 2014
Oh! I just noticed the question about Tablespoons of butter. Sticks usually are marked with lines showing the Tablespoons, and maybe even 1/2 cup etc.
 
Nancy April 7, 2014
I never use corn syrup. Could I use Agave?
 
Ruth G. April 7, 2014
Denise,
To expand on Ron's response the stick of butter with 8 tablespoons in it weighs 4 oz. There for each tbl is .5 oz times 5 would be 2.5 oz. Don't have a converter with me to tell you in grams.
 
Denise M. April 7, 2014
Could anyone tell me the weight of 5 tablespoons of butter. I want to try these but hacking into the butter with a tablespoon seems a bit inefficient. Weight in grams would be fabulous, but happy to convert if in ounces
 
Ron April 7, 2014
Divide the bar of butter into 8 portions. five of these portions are 5 tablespoons.
 
rocombo April 6, 2014
I've been making these cookies for years and they fly off the plate - because they are light, and delicious!
 
Dyanne April 6, 2014
anyone else have these "melt" into one very large cookie across the sheet? spacing and size of "teaspoon-fulls" seems critical...now the challenge on how to get the one VERY LARGE cookie-like thing off the parchment paper!
 
jacqueline April 6, 2014
I always wondered how lace cookies were made, now I know, and can't wait to make some; thanks for the recipe;tomorrow's my Birthday, these cookies will be a present to me from you!
 
silvercup April 6, 2014
Has anyone tried to make this gluten free?
 
Greenstuff April 6, 2014
I used Scandinavian light syrup (made from sugar beets. It worked great, but my total cooking time was about 6 minutes rather than 10.
 
LitaBonita April 10, 2014
This is so good to know! I live in Norway now and have had limited success substituting the sugar beet syrup for corn syrup, so was hesitant to try it with these cookies. But corn syrup is a precious commodity here (a normal bottle of the stuff costs nearly $15) whereas the sugar beet syrup is ridiculously cheap, so I am thrilled that I can try this recipe out with the latter :D
 
Nancy S. April 6, 2014
I am going to try these using Grade B maple syrup because then I can make them on Passover, when we don't eat corn products. So they will be maply-lemony.
 
pvanhagenlcsw April 6, 2014
Is there such a thing as a lemony lacy cookie that is too big? These cookies are delightful and so very easy to make; a one pot cookie dough. My "teaspoonful" is generous but with such deliciousness how could that be a problem?
 
TrevorC March 31, 2014
Inexperienced but enthusiastic cookie maker here. How big should the spoonfuls of cookie dough be to get a proper yield of cookies?
 
Eleanor H. March 31, 2014
Is there a good substitution for the almonds? I'm dealing with a broad nut/seed allergy
 
PaigeBakes March 31, 2014
Have you tried using brown rice syrup or golden syrup in place of corn syrup? Do you think it would be a 1:1 substitution?
 
chef J. March 31, 2014
Instead of corn syrup try tapioca syrup. It is much healthier for you!
 
Rose L. March 31, 2014
This looks delicious! Can you use a ground almond meal, like Bob's Red Mill, in this?
 
chef J. March 31, 2014
I only know about tapioca syrup.
 
Greenstuff April 6, 2014
I just noticed this question from Rose Lewis about using ground almond meal. That's what I used, and it they were perfect, just like the pictures. And they tasted as good as they looked, a great accompaniment to a raspberry sorbet.
 
Rose L. April 7, 2014
Thanks Chris! Looks like I'll have something to look forward to trying this weekend. :)
 
Sagegreen February 20, 2011
So elegant! Love the lemon addition.
 
Allison F. February 20, 2011
Thanks!