Maple pecan cookies

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Pecan shortbread cookies with a maple syrup icing. Sprinkle maple sugar on top for bonus points!

Prep Time30

Cook Time10

Total Time40

Servings: small cookies

Calories: 58kcal

Ingredients

Cookies

8 tablespoon butter, room temperature 112 grams
¼ cup granulated sugar 50 grams
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or sub with maple extract!
¼ teaspoon kosher salt or ½ teaspoon if using unsalted butter
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 180 grams
⅓ cup pecans 40 grams (best to measure this one by weight!) see note for farmers market option. DOUBLE amount if dipping cookies in pecans.

Maple icing

2 tablespoon butter 28 grams
⅓ cup maple syrup
3 tablespoon maple sugar
1 cup powdered sugar 120 grams
1 pinch salt

Optional

maple sugar for dusting, see note
very finely chopped pecans for decorating, see note

Instructions

Prepare pecans & butter

Bring the butter to room temperature (65℉) - cold butter won't combine with the sugar properly. It takes 30 minutes to an hour to come to room temperature (depending on how hot or cold your kitchen is). Forgot? Cut the butter into small cubes and it will soften much quicker.
Toast the pecan halves: preheat your oven to 250℉. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and bake until very lightly browned, about 5-15 minutes. Be careful of burning them (sometimes they taste off if they turn darker brown, instead of light golden). Turn off the oven (cookies need to chill before baking). Once cool enough to handle, finely chop the pecans by hand or in a food processor.

Make the shortbread cookie dough

Cream butter & sugar.
IN A STAND MIXER: Use the paddle to cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed. Mix until it's well combined and smooth (don't worry about over-mixing at this stage).
BY HAND: use a wooden spoon or spatula and mix the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Mix in the vanilla and salt, scraping down the sides as needed. (If using maple extract, use it here).
Add flour & pecans: mix in the flour and pecans (by hand, or on low speed in a mixer). Stir until crumbly, but fully combined (no dry patches of flour). Then stop - don't overmix. (Overmixing makes the cookies tough, and is hard to overmix by hand).
Remove dough from the mixer or your bowl. Place on a clean counter and kneed (smush) it by hand until it forms a cohesive ball. It will probably try to crack, keep kneeding it.

Cut out dough & bake

Roll & cut out the dough: roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is ¼" thick. If the dough is really soft, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes, covered in plastic wrap. Once ready, using a cookie cutter and place the cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets. They don't really spread, so you can place them somewhat close.
Combine dough scraps together and reroll, then continue to cutout cookies until all of the dough is used.
Chill cutouts in the fridge for 30 minutes - this prevents them from spreading when baking.
Preheat oven to 350℉. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Bake cookies: when ready, bake the cookies for 8-12 minutes. They will turn golden around the edges, but not the centers. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to completely cool before icing (or they might break).

Ice the cookies

Make the maple icing: melt butter and maple syrup in a saucepan on the stove or in a bowl in the microwave. (When the mixture is warm, it is runnier and easier to coat the cookies with). Add in the maple sugar and stir to dissolve.
Remove from heat and stir in the powdered sugar. Add in ¼ teaspoon maple extract, if using. (see note about flavors).
Dip the cookies: dip the top of the cooled cookies into the icing, then set on a rack so extra icing drips off. If dusting with maple sugar or pecans, do that now while the icing is warm and runny.
Let icing harden: the icing will harden in 15 minutes to an hour (depending on how warm your icing was and how hot your kitchen is). Once fully hardened, they can be stacked and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes

Number of cookies: I used 1.5-2" cookie cutters and got about 36 (three dozen) cookies. It will really depend on how big your cookie cutter is and how thick you roll the dough.

Pecans: if your farmers market sells freshly roasted pecans, they are excellent in these cookies. Do not toast them again at home, just chop them up. If you plan to dip your cookies in pecans, toast twice as many (or more!)

Maple icing: Using just pure maple syrup yielded a very true maple flavor, but you can only use so much syrup in the frosting. Maple sugar really adds an extra maple flavor that's hard to pass up.

Decoration: if desired, sprinkle chopped pecans on top of wet icing.

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