I'm three-quarters Swedish so maybe there are some things I'm just destined to like: meatballs, volvos and particleboard furniture. Genetically predisposed or not, one Swedish thing I'm definitely crazy about is the oat crisp. Waifishly thin with a delicate, lacy appearance and a sweet, buttery crunch, it's hard to resist. Over time I've only fallen more deeply in love with this unassuming little cookie. My first introduction was made a number of years ago by the Swedish cultural ambassador Ikea. There was a store just a few freeway exits away from the house where I lived in Phoenix, so popping in for a box of my little crisps was never a problem. The size of the box was another story. It was really more of a giant cardboard flat of them than anything else. It may have been designed for those people who rent a U-Haul trailer and drive to Ikea from hours away for an epic shopping journey rather than for the casual shopper, like myself, just dropping in. Anyway, the point is, the box was darn large and would either lead to an out-and-out cookie binge or to a slow and steady cookie consumption that threatened to leave me nutrient-deprived, uninterested in actual food. Such was the appeal of these treats.
Fast forward to last year when a Swedish restaurant opened in Tempe and took my affection for the oat crisp to a whole new level. The cookies, like everything in the restaurant, were homemade. These cookies were much larger than their Ikea counterpart and were sandwiched together with a cold lemon cream filling between them. I'm not much of a cream fan but the cookies, oh, the cookies…
Now with December well underway and cookie season in full swing as we approach Christmas, I've been thinking more and more about the oat crisp. Sure I could have just popped into the Ikea here in Portland or checked out the town's token Swedish restaurant but instead, I wanted to make some myself. Amazingly, I got lucky and stumbled onto what ended up being an excellent recipe on my first try.
The cookies were the picture of perfection by themselves but then, I had an epiphany (pause for dramatic effect). This is the best cookie the world will ever know for use in an ice cream sandwich. What makes them so perfect? They are sweet, crunchy and brittle, like the top of a perfect crème brûlée. When you sink your teeth through cookie into ice cream, it's the same feeling you have when you tap the edge of your spoon through caramelized sugar into creamy custard in a crème brûlée. Maybe it's just that I love crème brûlée that much but these ice cream sandwiches are awesome!
I used Eating Right's Black Cherry Chocolate Chip Low Fat Frozen Yogurt for the filling because it was already in the freezer, however, I highly recommend it. I also used a slightly thinner layer of filling than you would in a sandwich with thicker cookies. I feel it yields a better cookie-to-ice cream ratio. Additionally, although I didn't have any around, Nutella would probably have made these ice cream sandwiches even more amazing. (Really, is there anything Nutella can''t improve?) Just try spreading a thin layer on one of the cookies before you assemble the sandwich.
Ingredients
- 7 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/4 cups oats (I used quick oats)
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Melt butter over medium heat in a pot on the stove
- Stir oats into melted butter
- Mix eggs and granulated sugar together in another bowl.
- Add flour and baking powder to the egg and sugar mixture, then mix everything into the oat and butter mixture.
- Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat mats.
- Drop 1 teaspoon of batter for each cookie, spaced 3 inches apart on baking sheets.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Middle will have developed a lacy appearance.
- Remove from oven, leave cookies on cookie sheet for approximately 1 minute.
- Carefully remove with a spatula or knife and place on cooling rack and allow to cool and harden.
Recipe credit: Delishhh
Notes
- More batter can be used to make larger cookies. If so, space further apart, use a spatula to spread batter out and bake for slightly longer than with smaller cookies.
- Do not allow batter to sit before making cookies. Use immediately, otherwise oats will begin to absorb moisture from the batter and cookies will not spread out properly when baking.
- If desired, rather than transferring cookies to cooling rack, cookies can be place on rolling pin and allowed to harden. This will yield curved cookies.
- Half of each cookie can be dipped in chocolate for a special treat.
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