Aunt Alpha's Lacey Oatmeal Cookies

My family doesn’t have a long list of food traditions. We joke about olives making things gourmet even though only a few of us actually like them. We usually talk about a Jell-o salad, although I can’t remember too many holidays where we have actually had one on the table. But my great (great?) Aunt Alpha’s Lacey Oatmeal Cookies are something that should be at every holiday and event. My incredible grandmother made dozens of these for my wedding shower. She got up at 4 am the day after driving from Florida to Missouri to make them and it was a labor of love I cherish deeply.

Lacey Oatmeal Cookies are these wonderful very light, crispy, caramelized cookies that you can almost see-through. They spread out to 2-3x the size of the dough (batter?) you put on the sheet pan and it causes this wonderful reaction where the sugar and butter caramelize into something incredible.

In honor of the great Boggs women who have come before me, I made a big batch (every batch is rather large actually because of how little dough each cookie takes) for Christmas this year. At both family gatherings, they were a huge hit!

I have never taken these to an event (pre-COVID… sigh) and not gotten rave reviews. Trader Joe’s sells chocolate-dipped versions, and while they are good, they just are quite the same. They aren’t as delicate and light — understandably so, because I cannot imagine they can travel far and not just turn into a pile of crispy crumbs. One of the fantastic things about this recipe is that while you have to plan ahead, the dough keeps extremely well in the fridge for a week or even two, so you can bake some off right before you are ready to eat them or make a few at a time.

Aunt Alpha’s Lacey Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup quick oats

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 tablespoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter — melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg — beaten

To Make

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together oats, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. Add in melted butter, vanilla, and egg. Stir until combined.

3. Refrigerate for a minimum of two hours, but overnight is best.

4. Preheat over to 325 degrees.

5. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil (yes, foil, not parchment). Drop small spoonfuls of dough 3 inches apart onto the sheet.

6. Bake for about 11 minutes. You want them to be golden brown, but not dark brown. If they are still pale, you will not get them off the foil in one piece. Once removed from the oven, slide the foil sheet onto a cooling rack. Once completely cooled, you can gently peel the foil off the backs of the cookies.

7. As you put batches in the oven, it is extremely important that you start with a completely cool cookie sheet. You can recycle foil pieces if cookies are coming off cleanly.

8. Once all batches are done, store in an airtight container for as long as they last (they won’t make it the week, I swear). They are delicious on top of vanilla ice cream!