The Story

It was by far one of the most popular television segments I’ve ever done. In fact, I received requests for several years after a baking segment we aired about Old Fashioned Lace Cookies. Now, as I was enjoying a hot summer day indoors, happily lost in a good book (one of my antique cookbooks, Mary Margaret McBride’s Encyclopedia of Cooking), I stumbled across the recipe for one of the most unexpectedly simple and elegant cookies of all time. I’m struck once again (as I am so often while researching your heirloom recipes) at the clever inventiveness of this creation. A little corn syrup, a little butter, brown sugar, some chopped nuts, and into the oven they go, teaspoonfuls of caramel-colored globs. But in no time at all, out come beautiful and bubbling discs of sugared antique lace! I love this recipe for a lot of reasons. I love it because it’s easy. I love it because it always has such a surprise finish. And I love it because you do.  Please give these Old Fashioned Lace Cookies a try and let me know how you like them! They are wonderful served by themselves or piped with your favorite filling.