Sugar Crisps

These old-fashioned oat cookies have a trick up their sleeve: baking soda dissolved in vinegar gets stirred into the dough, creating a fizzy reaction that makes the cookies puff up in the oven before crisping flat. The result is a cookie that’s light and snappy, not dense and chewy.

Brown sugar and granulated sugar work together here. The brown sugar adds a hint of molasses depth while the white sugar keeps things crisp. A touch of almond extract alongside the vanilla gives these a subtle nutty fragrance that most sugar cookies don’t have.

Flattening each ball with the bottom of a sugar-dipped glass is the classic technique. It creates that signature crackled sugar top and even thickness so every cookie bakes at the same rate.

Pro Tips

• Chill the dough for a full hour before shaping. It’s too soft to handle at room temperature
• Roll into 1-inch balls, no bigger. These spread as they bake
• Dip the glass bottom in sugar between each press so it doesn’t stick
• Pull them at 12 minutes when the edges are golden. They crisp up as they cool

Variations

• Roll the balls in cinnamon sugar before flattening for a snickerdoodle-style cookie
• Add ½ cup of mini chocolate chips to the dough for a chocolate-oat crisp
• Use maple extract instead of almond for a warm, autumnal flavor