Oatmeal Pecan Lace Cookies--Delicious, Flour-less,Gluten-free and lower calorie cookies!!

These light, thin, lacy and chewy, crisp cookies are flour free so they can easily be made gluten free by using gluten free oats. They are best with butter but if they need to be lactose free they can be made with other oils. 

On top of that versatility, they are whole grain, high fiber and lower in calories than other oatmeal cookies because they do not have flour. This recipe is adapted from one my friend got from Weight Watchers, but I am not sure exactly where she got it. But I have adapted this and really love these chewy light cookies that are pretty and delightful! 

Best of all, the texture and flavor of these cookies are wonderful!!! 

Oatmeal Pecan Lace Cookies

2  1/3 cups uncooked rolled  quick oats (choose GF if needed)   *

1/3 cup old fashioned oats*

1 TBSP ground flax seed, optional

 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed      

 2 tsp baking powder    

¾  cup pecans, finely chopped or any other nuts ** 

½ tsp table salt      

2/3 cup unsalted butter, melted***    

2 large eggs, beaten    

1 tsp vanilla extract   

Preheat oven to 350ºF and cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicon mats (Sil-Pats)

Mix oats, sugar, baking powder, pecans and salt together in a large bowl until well incorporated.

Add butter, egg and vanilla to oat mixture; mix well.

Refrigerate dough for at least 45 minutes or overnight.

Drop teaspoonful of batter onto prepared cookie sheets and slightly flatten each out, leaving at least 2-inches between each cookie.

Bake cookies until beginning to brown and edges turn golden brown, about 10 to 14 minutes. Leave them in the oven util nice and brown but they do go from perfect to very done quickly so keep an eye on them.  

Let cookies stand on cookie sheets for 2 minutes then carefully place on  cooling rack until completely cooled. These cookies are best eater soon after baking but may store in airtight container with layer of wax paper between cookies if needed. Be gentle with these cookies, they are delicate.

Yields 2 cookies per serving.

Notes

*For the oats I like to use mostly quick (not instant) oats. These are chopped a bit. If you only have larger old fashioned type oats put 2/3’s of them in the blender for a quick chop. I also add old fashioned oats for texture. You could add up to ½ cup or so if desired.

If you like the cookies denser, you could put half of the quick oats in the blender for a few seconds.

If you don’t have old fashioned use all quick oats.

**You can substitute any kind of nut for the pecans. I leave almond slices whole if I use almonds. Make sure to chop other nuts finely.

*** For dairy free use  2/3 cup of non-dairy margarine like smart balance or coconut oil Or a mix of one of these with a bit of shortening or olive oil.