you're making mealtime meaningful.
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.
Maple Thumbprint Cookies
Yield(s): Yield 4 dozen cookies
15m prep time
12m cook time
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup real maple syrup
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the filling:
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup
- 3-4 teaspoons water
Preparation
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 2 minutes. Add maple syrup and mix until combined, then beat in egg and vanilla.
- Add flour mixture gradually until just combined.
- Divide dough in half and flatten each half into a circle. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
- Remove one disc of dough from the fridge and portion out into tablespoon-sized balls. Place on prepared baking sheet 2-inches apart.
- Using your thumb or the back of a half teaspoon, press an indentation into the top of each ball. Bake until puffed and just set, 12-14 minutes.
- When you remove from oven, use the back of a teaspoon to press in center of cookies once more to re-define the well. Let cool 10 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When cookies have cooled, whisk together the powdered sugar, salt, maple syrup and 3 teaspoons water until smooth. Add more water by the 1/2 teaspoon if needed until you have a glaze that's thick but pourable.
- Transfer filling to a piping bag and snip off the end. Fill cookies with filling and set aside. Filling will set in a couple of hours. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Join Us Pull Up A Chair.