Maple glazed cut out cookies are soft, easy to make cookies that are perfect for fall. Maple flavored sugar cookies are frosted with a maple glaze and sprinkled with walnuts.
Fall has a new favorite flavor in town – maple. If you’re over pumpkin spice and salted caramel, you’ll love my maple glazed cut out cookies.
These cut out cookies are soft and chewy, while maintaining their shape while baking. The cookies are lightly flavored with maple, then topped with a maple glaze made from maple syrup.
I like to top a few with chopped walnuts, but these cookies can shine without any extra frills.
Cut out cookie tips
Cut out cookie tipsFirst and foremost – read the directions beginning to end before starting.
Second, measure your ingredients accurately. Part of the success of cut out cookies is in accurately measuring your ingredients. Most of all? The flour.
To accurately measure flour, spoon flour into your measuring cup, then level off with a knife. If you were to scoop flour with the measuring cup, this packs the flour into the cup, adding up to 25% extra flour to your dough. This will cause your cookies to turn out tough, dry, and crumbly.
Even better – weigh your flour instead. Using a kitchen scale ensures 100% accuracy. One cup of flour should weigh 120 grams.
The absolute most important tip for cut out cookie success? Chilled dough. This step is so important that I’ve included an entire section on it below.
Ingredients and substitutions
(Sugar and maple syrup for the glaze are not included in the photo above)
Since baking is an exact science, I don’t have many substitutions to offer for this recipe. Each ingredient has its purpose in the recipe and nothing should be omitted.
Maple extract can be substituted with vanilla extract to make a vanilla cookie instead.
Unsalted butter and salt can be substituted with salted butter instead.
Your butter and eggs should be room temperature so that they will easily incorporate with your other ingredients.
Chilling your dough
Once your dough is mixed, wrap it up and place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Your dough can rest as long as 24 hours if you’d like to make it the day before.
When you are ready to roll out the dough, try not to handle it too much with your hands – this warms up the dough faster.
Also, after you’ve cut out your cookies and placed them on the baking sheet – place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before baking. This ensures those cookies are chilled and will keep their shape once they go in the oven.
If cookie dough is room temperature, it will spread more when baking. This goes for any cookie – not just cut out cookies.
Dust everything with flour
Don’t be afraid to dust all of your tools with flour.
Think about everything that’s touching the dough: the counter top or parchment paper, cookie cutters, rolling pin, and even your hands. A little flour will help the dough from sticking.
Keep a small bowl to the side with extra flour just in case.
I used this leaf cookie cutter set which includes the maple leaf and acorn, if you’re interested in making your cookies the same way.
Tips for frosting cookies
Use a spoon, spatula, or knife to coat each cookie in a thin layer of maple glaze. I used a small spatula, but the back of a spoon or a butter knife would also work.
You can also hold the edges of your cookie, turn it upside down, and dunk the top of the cookie into your frosting. Be sure to allow excess glaze to drip off before turning it right side up to dry.
While your cookies are still wet, sprinkle on any optional nuts or sprinkles.
Allow your cookies to dry for several hours at room temperature before storing. Once your cookies are completely dry, you should be able to stack them without cracking the glaze.
Maple Glazed Cut Out Cookies
Ingredients
Cutout Cookies
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon maple extract
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Maple Frosting
- 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1/4 cup real maple syrup
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts optional
Instructions
Cutout Cookies
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and maple extract and beat until fluffy, about a minute.
- In a separate bowl, sift (or whisk) together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into butter mixture and stir until just combined. Shape dough into a round disc and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, up to 24 hours.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut dough in half, placing other half back in the refrigerator. Dust counter top, rolling pin, and top of dough with flour. Roll dough out to 1/4" thickness. Cut into assorted shapes and place onto baking sheet one inch apart.
- Bake cookies for 8-9 minutes or until cookies just begin to lightly brown around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting, about 30 minutes.
- Repeat with remaining dough.
Maple Glaze.
- In a bowl, combine confectioner's sugar and maple syrup, using a whisk if needed to remove clumps. Glaze should be smooth and shiny.
- Using a small spatula, the back of a spoon, or a butter knife, gently coat each cookie with a thin layer of glaze.
- Allow cookies to dry for several hours before stacking and/or storing.
Notes
- Your cookies will keep for 5-7 days in a sealed container. To help keep cookies fresh, you can place a slice of bread in the container with the cookies. Replace the bread slice as needed.
- You can keep raw cookie dough in the refrigerator for 3 days. Cookie dough freezes well, up to 3 months in a sealed plastic container or freezer bag. Allow frozen dough to thaw for up to 30 minutes on the counter before rolling out.
- For this recipe, I was able to make about forty 3 inch maple leaf cookies, by re-rolling and cutting any excess dough until it was gone.
- If you're having trouble with your cookies spreading in the oven, try this: After cutting out your cookies, place the prepared cookie sheet in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to re-chill the dough before baking.
These look really good. I’m going to try them!