Here’s one of those “what the f#&k is that?” kind of cookies. Well, chill out and I’ll tell you.
Lace cookies are called that because when you cook them they end up with lots of little holes in them, like lace. And they’re Belgian because….Belgium is a very porous country? I don’t know, I’ve never been there. Just go with it.
Anyway, these actually end up looking pretty fancy (which is rare for my recipes) but they’re actually one of the easiest things you can make. Plus there’s the added benefit that, if you want, when you take them out of the oven you can shape them into multiple shapes while they’re still warm and they’ll harden like that – I’ll show you, it’s super simple and again…fancy.
Start with your pecans and if you have a mini food processor, chop them up until they’re in small pieces and you’ve got two cups of them. Set them aside. Put the sugar, corn syrup, butter and vanilla into a saucepan at medium to medium-high heat and bring it to the point that it’s just started to boil. It works best if you have softened the butter to room temperature. If you haven’t, that’s fine – just start with the heat on low and stir a lot until the butter is melted, then turn up the flame until the mixture starts to boil. Once that happens, turn the heat off and quickly stir in the pecans, flour and nutmeg until fully blended. That’s it for the mixing! Note that the batter will be pretty thick and gooey. Take it off the heat and drop the batter in rounded teaspoons onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. These WILL spread, so put maybe 6 per sheet. Bake at 350 until the cookies are bubbling and a nice golden brown color, around 8 minutes. Now, here’s where you can get creative. You can let them cool as is, and that’s great. If you do that, let them sit on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack. Or, while they’re still warm you can mold them into shapes. You can: You should move quickly, though, because they start to harden right after you take them out of the oven and it can be difficult to mold them. This is where you might singe your fingertips a bit. Not too bad, and as they say art is suffering 🙂 Once they’re cooled, this is where the optional chocolate chips (and/or white chocolate chips) come in. Melt the chocolate and then dip the cookies into the chocolate to up the fancy factor even more so that at this point you’re ready for freakin’ Top Chef. Though probably not – that show looks deadly, I could never… But the consensus from my crack staff of food tasters (aka husband and people we work with) is that these are definitely even better with a little chocolate on them. Kind of like life, if you think about it. Ingredients
Directions
Ugly Desserts 
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