Swedish Havreflarn Cookies

Swedish / Scandinavian Oatmeal Lace Cookies. Crisp and lovely. I have adapted my recipe from several sources, and adjusted through trial and error. :-)

• Ready In: 22 mins
• Serves: 10
• Yields: 30 Cookies

Ingredients

• 8  tablespoons butter, melted (one stick)
• 1 1⁄2 cups rolled oats (NOT quick oats)
• 1⁄4 cup  almonds, plain. toasted lightly
• 3⁄4 cup sugar (superfine is ok too)
• 1  egg (if using medium eggs, add 1 of an eggshell half of water)
• 4  tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
• 1  teaspoon baking powder (if yours is old, use a little bit more)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt (we use a large pinch of kosher..if using table salt, use 1/4 teaspoon)
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  almond extract

Directions

1. Melt your butter in the microwave or in a small pot on the stove. Set aside.
2. Use your blender or mini-food processor to whirl the oats into small bits. Do not process too long, you don't want powder, just smaller bits.
3. Do the same with the toasted, cooled almonds, or chop very fine manually.
4. Mix the melted butter, oats and almonds till well blended.
5. Whisk egg and sugar together until sugar is dissolved completely and mixture is a smooth yellow color. Add extracts. Mix well. Add butter, oats and almond mixture. Mix well. I like to use a rubber spatula.
6. Whisk 2T flour, baking powder and salt together, add to sugar/oats mixture. Mix until well blended. (Now, adjust Flour as needed, depending on your tastes and the humidity of the day. Start by adding a T at a time until batter is where you want it.) Batter should be relaxed, but NOT runny. Should not be stiff.
7. Using a teaspoon, place small spoonfuls on a SILPAT covered sheet pan. (if you don't have Silpats, use parchment paper, but this works best with Silpats.) Place them well apart, at least 2 inches. On my large pans, I usually place 8 spoonfuls.
8. Place on middle rack in preheated 350°F oven. Set timer for 6 minutes.
9. Rotate pan after 6 mins, then set timer for 1 minute, and check again. Repeat until the edges of each lacy cookie are starting to turn a nice caramel brown, maybe no more than a quarter of an inch in, no more. I usually end up doing no more than 2 minutes. ---Do. Not. Overbake!---.
10. Remove from oven. Put your next prepared cookie sheet into the oven and set the timer.
11. Let this first sheet cool 2 minutes Then, lift entire Silpat with cookies on it off the first cookie sheet and place on cooling rack. In a few minutes you can remove them from the rack and place in your container.
12. Set the hot cookie sheet somewhere to cool off quickly. When you portion out your next batch of cookies, you don't want to be working with a hot cookie sheet.
13. Lather, Rinse, Repeat until you have used up all the dough.
14. NOTE: as the dough sits, the cookies may not expand into the lacy goodies they usually spread into, as the flour and oats absorb the moisture. This may be great if you want a little thicker cookie. However, if you want to maintain the crispy laciness, add a tiny teaspoonful of water to the dough, mixing very well, before portioning it out again.
15. Also, everyone's oven is different. Watch your first batches to fine-tune the temp and timing.
16. This recipe makes about 30 or more cookies, depending on your portion size.
17. Enjoy!