Tuesday, December 8, 2009

12 Days of Cookies - Day 7 - Pecan Lace Sandwiches with Orange Buttercream





Welcome to Day 7 of the 12 Days of Cookies, in which our fearless heroine (that's me =P ) learns several valuable lessons.  Yes, Day 7 was supposed to be yesterday.  And no, yesterday did not go well...

You'd think I would have learned by now.  Baking when tired and in a really bad mood never ends well.  *sigh*  And yet, I tried to do it anyway.  Because I was trying to stay on schedule.  So that's one lesson--sometimes it's better just to go to bed and deal with stuff in the morning.  Otherwise, you end up with "lace" cookies that look like this:



And that's one of the good ones.  Lol. =)  So after some sleep, I took another look at things.  And decided to try making these cookies again.  Next lesson learned--apparently, when baking in a bad mood, precise measuring goes out the window.  I'm pretty sure that for last night's batch, I managed to use too little corn syrup (that's what I get for eyeballing it), too many nuts (didn't think throwing in those last few from the bottom of the container would make that much difference), and too much flour (did dip & sweep instead of weighing, which I almost never do).  So combine all those and what do you get?  If you said a sort of dry, crumbly dough, you win!  Now I haven't made lace cookies before, but as an experienced baker, I should have realized that something was wrong.  Okay, to be honest, I did suspect that something was wrong, but I kept going anyway.  Not the brightest thing I've ever done.  After proper measuring, my dough/batter looked much better, and resulted in cookies that look like this:



Now that looks like a lace cookie!

I did make a couple small changes to the recipe.  I added a big pinch of kosher salt to the cookie dough/batter.  Most of the cookies I left flat, but I did try putting a few on my rolling pin to get tuiles.  Pretty cool.  For the filling, I made a few sandwiches with melted chocolate, just for the heck of it.  For the buttercream, I used zest and juice from a satsuma since that's what I had in the fridge.  I also added a pinch of salt to the buttercream.



The verdict?  These are really tasty!  I love the lacey texture of the cookies--very pretty.  And the buttercream is delicious.  The two together are a bit sweet, but the salt I added definitely helps with that.  I haven't had a chance to get any other opinions, so I'll have to get back to you with what the rest of the family thinks.  Now that I've figured out what I did wrong the first time, I'll definitely be making these again.



If you'd like to try them for yourself, you can find the recipe here.  And be sure to check out the other bakers participating in the 12 Days of Cookies to see what they've baked up for yesterday and today!  =)



Andrea of Andrea's Recipes
(honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
Tiffany of The Nesting Project





8 comments:

  1. They sound delicious! And I think your first batch looks tasty too.

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  2. I adore lace cookies - florentine lace cookies were a must around christmas time growing up! And it's funny - I'm the exact opposite about baking when tired or cranky; baking then is the only way for me to get in a better mood!

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  3. Beautiful, Di, and I love your insightful assessment about being in the right frame of mind for baking! :) I know I'll never learn NOT to tackle the intricate cookie projects at the wrong time ~ and when you're taking butter out to soften at 10 pm, it's a pretty good indicator that you're heading for trouble.

    Love your pics too ~ I'm sure you'll inspire lots of bakers to add these to their holiday platters!!

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  4. How interesting to see the difference in the two batches. Although I'm sure they both tasted great, the lacy ones are so pretty! Good work, especially making a second batch.

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  5. I hear you. I had to take a mental health day and feell behind. Nevrtheless, well done o final outcome.
    And you Ginger Prange cookies llok beautiful. Great piping. Dont let all this stress you out!

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  6. Weird how our baking is affected by our moods huh? Second batch turned out beautifully!

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  7. We've obviously been looking at the same recipes, because I made these tonight! Though I used pistachios and added toasted coconut. They need a little more tweaking before I'm totally happy with them - they weren't lacy enough - but they were really delicious, so I'm going to try them again. Was your second batch of batter liquid-y? I'm thinking I need some extra butter since I added additional dry ingredients (coconut).

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  8. You are so good about keeping on when you have a batch that doesn't turn out. I wanna make lace cookies, but am afraid. Very Afraid.

    Beautiful lacy cookies.

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