Imagine please a cookie that’s so soft it melts in your mouth, a cookie that’s delightfully sweet and imbued with just enough maple flavor to make you feel nice and cozy, a cookie that’s as adorable as it is tasty. That’s Maple Thumbprints. They’re simple, soft, and sweet and not quite like any cookie I’ve ever had before.

This isn’t a cookie situation where you need a lot of special ingredients. Nope, it’s just the usual baking suspects (flour, sugar, and the like), plus things like cinnamon and nutmeg and the star of the show — maple syrup. And, yes, you need the real stuff, not flavored and dyed corn syrup in a cabin shaped bottle.

It’s an easy and basic dough without any tricks up its sleeve but you do need to chill it for two hours. It helps to divide the dough in two and flatten it into two discs before you wrap it and chill it, just so it’s easier to work with in the end.

Once it’s chilled you’ll portion the dough out into balls that are about a tablespoon in size and get them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Here’s where the “thumbprint” portion comes in — Using your thumb or the back of a teaspoon, you’ll press an indentation into each ball of dough before you get them in the oven. This flattens them a bit so they end up as nice disks, but also creates a small well in the center of each cookie. (Because there’s filling to be made!)

Those indentations will lose a bit of their shape as they bake, so when they come out of the oven, reinforce the well with the back of a teaspoon. (I wouldn’t use your thumb here because, well, they’re hot. And burns aren’t fun.)

While the cookies cool, you can work on the filling, but don’t start too early as it only takes seconds to whisk up and you need the cookies at room temp before you fill them. Just whisk together some powdered sugar, maple syrup, water, and a touch of salt until you have an icing that’s pourable but still thick.

And then pipe it right into the center of the cookie. That maple glaze will harden as it sits but if you’re impatient… like maybe we were, you’ll having some flowing maple sweetness when you bite into these.