More Breadcrumbs

Scotch Oat Crunchies

Cook the Book
Caroline Russock
Published: Last Updated:
Scotch Oat Crunchies

[Photograph: Romulo Yanes]

The rationing of flour that occurred during World War II was the inspiration for all sorts of unlikely oat-based recipes featured in Gourmet magazine in an article titled, "The King's Porridge." Recipes included an oaty haggis, oat macaroons, and these Scotch Oat Crunchies sandwich cookies that Gourmet's editors chose as their best cookie recipe from 1943 for The Gourmet Cookie Book. The oats lend a nice nuttiness to these sandwich cookies that can be filled with your choice of dried fruit, jam, or even mincemeat for real vintage dessert flavor.

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookie Book. Copyright © 2010. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Available wherever books are sold. All Rights Reserved.

  • Yield:4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups pastry flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 2 or 3 drops almond extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Dates, raisins, mincemeat, figs, or apricots, for filling

Directions

  1. 1.

    Cream the butter until it is almost white; gradually add the light brown
    sugar, and keep on creaming until the two are thoroughly blended. Combine the pastry flour and the baking powder and salt; sift twice into
    a dry mixing bowl. Stir in the rolled oats. When this mixture is thoroughly
    blended, add to it alternately the creamed butter and 1/2 cup cold water to which has been added the almond extract and vanilla extract. Chill
    for at least 25 minutes.

  2. 2.

    Roll out a portion of the dough about 1/8 inch thick, or as thin as it can be rolled on a slightly floured board. Cut into rounds about 2 inches in diameter; lift these with a broad spatula onto a generously buttered baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes in a moderate oven (350°F), or until the cookies are slightly browned. Cool and store in a cookie jar. They will keep indefinitely in a cool, dry place. When ready to use, spread a filling on one cookie and top it with another, and eat immediately.

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