Soft Maple Cookies

I wanted to bake some cookies for the weekend and I wanted to bake something new and different and so I went to my pinterest cookies and bars board to find a recipe I had ear-marked for future use. My Pinterest is filled with recipes that I want to try sometime on a variety of boards.

 

Anyone who knows me knows I never do anything halfway and so I have more than a hundred boards, covering every topic from aprons, to soup to nuts and everything in between.  This recipe here today is on my Cookies and Bars board. No surprise I have more than 1300 recipes pinned on that one alone.  I know  . . .  What am I like!!!

This is a recipe I had recently added to my board from a blog called Dear Crissy. Not her original recipe however, she, herself,  had adapted it from the people at BHG.  It was called Soft Maple Sugar Cookies.

I usually trust BHG recipes.  They rarely if ever fail.  I had everything in the house and so today I went for it.  I love, LOVE Maple flavour anything.  When I moved over here to the UK, I brought a 4 litre can of Maple Syrup right onto the plane with me.  Of course you could do that back then!  There was no way I was living without my Maple Syrup!

I am not sure if it is the difference in flour or what, but when I had everything mixed together for these cookies, I had a very wet  tacky dough that wasn't going to co-operate into being rolled into balls for anyone.  

 

I decided the only solution was to add more flour, which I did and which worked out very well.  I added an additonal cup of flour.  My dough was still a tiny bit sticky, but very manageable!! 

I kept my fingers cross and banged them into the oven . . .  hoping that the extra flour wouldn't make too much of a difference and thankfully !  YES!  The cookies came out beautifully!  DO make sure you leave adequate space between them because they spread out quite a bit.  The recipe says 3 inches and it means 3 inches. 

Try not to crowd the pan.  Leaving adequate space is what gives you a nice crisp edge on your cookie, with a chewy middle.  So you have to bake them in batches?  So what.  Its well worth it!

They are exceptionally sweet cookies.  Or at least I thought that they were.  I had one without any icing on it, and my blood sugar level sky-rocketed.  I had blurry eyes for a couple of hours.  (That will teach me!)  Todd had two with the sugar glaze, no problem, although he did agree they were somewhat sweet, but very edible despite that. 

 

They melt in your mouth and are mildly flavoured with Maple . . . and make a great once in a blue moon treat for anyone who doesn't already have Diabetes.  I do, so these are definitely on my list of "no-no's!" 

I would suggest only icing  about half of them and then freezing the other half, un-iced, for a future time.  They are really large cookies also.  About 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter, but they are thin . . .  crisp edged and nicely chewy in the centre.  They are gorgeous even without the drizzle icing.

 

*Soft Maple Cookies*

Makes 24

Printable Recipe 

 

Soft and filled with lots of maple flavour.  Betcha can't eat just one. Don't be tempted to use all butter.  Using half butter and half shortening is what makes these so chewably soft and irresistable. 

120g butter, softened (1/2 cup)

80g white vegetable shortening (1/2 cup)

287g granulated sugar (1 1/2 cups)

50g soft brown sugar (1/4 cup, packed)

60ml good quality pure maple syrup (1/4 cup)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/8 tsp salt

3 large free range egg yolks

1/2 tsp vanilla

385g plain flour (2 3/4 cups all purpose) 

For the maple drizzle:

60ml heavy cream

60g butter, melted

3 TBS pure maple syrup

260g - 325g icing sugar, sifted (2 - 2 1/2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3.  Line several large baking sheets with baking paper.  Set aside.


Cream together both the butter and the shortening until light and fluffy.  Beat in both sugars, the male syrup soda, cream of tartar and salt, until thoroughly combined.  Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla.  Beat in the flour.


Scoop the dough out into heaped tablespoons and make 1 1/2 inch balls, placing them at least 3 inches apart on the baking sheets.  Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until set and golden around the edges.  The centres will still look slightly soft.  Let cool on the baking sheets for several minutes before scooping off onto a wire rack to finish cooling.


Whisk together the cream, butter and maple syrup for the drizzle.  Whisk in the icing sugar until you have a mixture that is thick but drizzable.  Drizzle this haphazardly over the cookies and allow to set before storing in an airtight container.  

So there you have it.  Soft Maple Cookies, with a Maple flavour drizzle.  Something sweet for the weekend.  Enjoy!  Bon Appetit!