ICED MAPLE WALNUT COOKIES
MAKES 30 COOKIES
Every year as the holidays roll around, my sister and I eagerly awaited the opportunity to bake sugar cookies with our mom. The three of us would spend hours rolling the dough, cutting out shapes, and decorating them in lively colors and patterns. These sweet, maple-licious cookies have become a more adult continuation of the tradition. After baking and cooling the cookies, a simple icing frosts the top in a pearly, sugar layer that children of all ages find hard to resist. Maple sugar — made by boiling maple sap beyond the maple syrup stage — lends a warm, distinctive sweetness that plain granulated sugar just can’t deliver.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely ground walnuts or walnut flour*
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup maple sugar**
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ground walnuts, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars on high speed until fluffy, 2 minutes. Add the egg, maple syrup, and vanilla and beat until incorporated, 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low, slowly add the flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
Divide the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic, and chill until firm, 2 to 3 hours or up to overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/3-inch thickness and cut out circles or maple leaf shapes with a cookie cutter. Gather the scraps into a ball, wrap them in plastic wrap, chill them for 15 minutes, reroll the dough, and cut out more cookies. Using an offset spatula, transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart, and bake until the edges are golden and the cookies puff slightly, 8 to 9 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Arrange each rack with the cooled cookies on top of a cooled baking sheet.
*To make your own walnut flour, process raw walnuts in a food processor until fine (but make sure not to overprocess, which will create walnut butter!).
**Maple sugar can be found in natural food stores, many supermarkets, and online. Well-known brands include Coombs Family Farms and Shady Maple.
Recipe from THE SPRINKLES BAKING BOOK by Candace Nelson, published by Grand Central Publishing. Copyright © 2016 Candace Nelson.
Available everywhere!
