Buttery Lemony Lace Cookies Recipe on Food52 (2024)

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?

Hi Allison!
By ground almonds, can I use almond flour or do they still need their
nutty consistency?

By "wheat flour" do you mean whole wheat flour? Or just regular all purpose flour?

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!)

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.

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.

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.

Not clear....do you remove the cookies from the sheet to the paper towel or leave them on the cookie sheet to cool?

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.

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?

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.

Bet these would be excellent for ice cream sandwiches....trying to track down your carrot cake.

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!

How about using a Silpat instead of parchment? I would think that would work, bu wondered if you had tried it.

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.

I really want to make these soon. Does anyone know if I can substitute Agave for the Corn Syrup?

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

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?