Maple Glazed Shortbread Cookies Recipe
Discover how easy it is to whip up a fresh batch of maple-glazed shortbread cookies. These taste so good, you’ll have trouble eating just one!
Shortbread cookies are my all-time favorite cookie! These combine rich, buttery shortbread with the sweet caramel and vanilla flavor of maple! Absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious!
The perfect cookie for fall, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.
Ingredients Needed for Glazed Maple Shortbread Cookies
- Powdered sugar – Traditionally shortbread is made with butter, flour, and powdered sugar. Sometimes cornstarch.
- Unsalted butter – Because what’s a shortbread cookie without butter?
- Maple extract – It, of course, adds that maple flavor to the cookie!
- All-purpose flour
- Kosher salt
How to Make Maple Glazed Shortbread Cookies Recipe
In a medium-size bowl whisk together the all-purpose flour and kosher salt.
In a large bowl using an electric mixer cream the softened butter, powdered sugar, and maple extract together until light and fluffy.
Add the flour to the butter mixture and mix at low speed until combined and it starts to come together to form a dough.
Place the dough on a sheet of plastic wrap. Shape dough into a disk, wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes. Chilling the dough is important. It will help keep the cookies from spreading too much.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Lightly dust a work surface with powdered sugar. Roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into your desired shapes and place them on the lined baking sheets.
We used a maple leaf-shaped cutter but you can use just a circle if you like. This recipe yields about 24 cookies. But this will depend on the size of your cookie cutter. My leaf cutter is about 3-inches and I usually get about 20 cookies.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on the edges. Let cool on the sheet pans for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
Ingredients for the Maple Syrup Glaze
- Powdered sugar – Because that’s what icing is made from, right?
- Pure maple syrup – To give the glaze a sweet maple flavor.
- Maple extract – This helps to bump up the maple flavor.
- Milk – Only needed to thin the glaze a little.
In a small bowl mix the confectioners’ sugar, maple syrup, and 1/2 tsp maple extract. If needed, add in the milk 1/2 teaspoon at a time to thin the icing. It should be thick but thin enough to spread.
Spread the glaze over the cookies with a knife.
Or you can place it in an icing bag or ziplock bag and snip a tiny hole in the corner of the bag. Pipe an outline around the edges, then roughly fill it in with the glaze. Use a toothpick or butter knife to smooth the glaze and fill in the gaps.
Let the maple glaze set up completely before serving or storing.
My niece was here for a visit while I was making these melt-in-your-mouth delicious cookies and we were not thrilled with the dull, lifeless color of the glaze. So she helped me play around with food colorings to achieve the almost brown color you see in these photos.
Please don’t ask me how much of each red, green, blue, or yellow we used. I could not even begin to tell you.
How to Store Maple Glazed Shortbread Cookies
Store the cookies in an airtight container or zip lock bag. You can also freeze for up to 3 months.
More Delicious Holiday Cookie Recipes
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Italian Fig Cookies (Cucidati)
- Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
- Italian Butterball Cookies
- Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- Cardamom Pistachio Cookies
Maple Glazed Shortbread Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
Maple Shortbread Cookie
- 1 cup Unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup Powdered sugar Confectioners' sugar
- 1 tsp Maple extract
- 2 cups All-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
Maple Glaze
- 1 cup Powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp Pure Maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp Maple extract
Instructions
Cookies
- In a medium-size bowl whisk together the all-purpose flour and kosher salt.
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer cream the softened butter, powdered sugar, and maple extract together until light and fluffy.
- Add the flour to the butter mixture and mix at low speed until combined and it starts to come together to form a dough.
- Place the dough on a sheet of plastic wrap. Shape dough into a disk, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes. Chilling the dough is important. It will help keep the cookies from spreading too much.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Lightly dust a work surface with powdered sugar. Roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into your desired shapes and place them on the lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on the edges. Let cool on the sheet pans for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
Glaze
- In a small bowl mix the powdered sugar, maple syrup, and 1/2 tsp maple extract. If needed add in the milk 1/2 teaspoon at a time to thin the icing. It should be thick but thin enough to spread.
- Spread the glaze over the cookies with a knife. Or you can place it in an icing bag or ziplock bag and snip a tiny hole in the corner of the bag. Pipe an outline around the edges, then roughly fill it in with the glaze. Use a toothpick or butter knife to smooth the glaze and fill in the gaps.
- Let the maple glaze set up completely before serving or storing.