Cookie Week: German Chocolate Lace Cookies

I hosted my first Cookie Exchange back in December.  Seven of my girlfriends baked up cookies and came over for a little swap.  Seems more wine than cookies were consumed at this affair, but thus is this the norm with this group.  I was a little surprised by some and very impressed with all of the beautiful cookies my friends made.  In an effort give each cookie their due, I would like to declare this week Cookie Week here at Adventures in Contesting.  I will post several of the recipes from our little exchange over the course of this week and maybe even talk someone into becoming the first guest post on my blog.  Hope you enjoy our cookies as much as we did, maybe you should crack open a couple bottles of wine so you may enjoy them as we did.  

German Chocolate Lace Cookies

For the Cookie Exchange, I made German Chocolate Lace Cookies.  My mom loves the Silver Palate Cookbooks and she has made this recipe from the SP Good Times Cookbook a few times.  I remembered it as being good and I love all things German Chocolate so it seemed like a great choice.  These cookies came out very thin, hence the lace title I guess, but I was sort of surprised by how thin they were, I thought I did something wrong.  I was sort of embarrassed that, as the host, I might have the worst cookies.  My husband was really sweet, I had no time to make more as I had over committed myself this week, he offered to make cookies for me so I would have worthy cookies to present at the swap.  That is quite the gesture from a man who's entire cooking experience includes only grilled cheese and Kraft Mac'n Cheese.  I went with the lace cookies and no one complained (to me).

German Chocolate Lace Cookies

Source:  The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons dark rum

1/4 cup heavy or whipping cream

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease cookie sheets.

Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Beat in 1 teaspoon of rum, heat for about 1 minute more.

Heat the cream to boiling in a small saucepan.  Reduce heat and stir in remaining 1 teaspoon of rum.  Simmer for 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chunks until melted and well blended.  Beat 1/3 cup of the chocolate mixture into the butter mixture. 

Sift flour, baking soda and salt together.  Stir into the butter mixture.  Fold in the oats, coconut, and nuts.

Drop rounded teaspoons of batter 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets.  Bake for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes to harden.  Remove cookies to wire racks to cool.

Drizzle remaining chocolate mixture over the cookies in a lacy pattern.

My lacy cookies with a sneak peek at more cookies to share this week.