INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup cold water
1/8 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp vanilla

Cream the butter until almost white. Add brown sugar and cream until as light as possible. Mix the cake flour, the baking powder, the salt and the oats in a bowl. Add almond and vanilla extracts to the 1/2 cup water. Add dry ingredients alternately with the water to the butter/sugar. Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350.

Roll out dough 1/8 inch thick and cut with a cookie cutter. May be baked on unbuttered parchment for about 12 minutes. When ready to serve, spread with any sweet filling (I used cherry jam) to make cookie sandwiches.

RESULTS

This was one of my two favorite recipes among the first eight I baked. I have a weakness for shortbread, and although this cookie isn’t quite shortbread, it’s adjacent, as they say. It is both crisp and chewy, the latter from the oats. The oats also lend a pleasant oaty flavor, unusual in a shortbread-type cookie.

I thought making jam sandwiches was painting the lily. These cookies are delectable naked. I couldn’t detect the almond flavor though. When I make them again (and I will, you can’t stop me) I will try increasing it to 1/4 tsp, and perhaps the vanilla to 1/2 tsp. I love the oat flavor, but it tends to overpower subtleties.

You will note in my photo that the cookies have little nubbins on their edges. These are oats. A cookie cutter will not cut an oat. The Gourmet photo has no nubbins, probably because they have been cut off by the food stylist who took the photo. Food stylists are sneaky that way.

The second time I made these I tried turning the oats into coarse meal with a food processor. The result was no nubbins, but the chewy character of the cookie was gone. Still tasted fine, of course. I recommend leaving the oats whole.

Next week: a little sweetheart of a cookie, so crisp and flavorful it’s hard to stop eating them.

Below: Gourmet’s photo, my photo