While looking for muffin recipes, I found these maple and walnut muffins that sounded so good that this year they have become a Christmas cookie dish. Maple and walnut are among my favorite flavors and the combination of both is simply amazing. It is a combination of flavors that I really enjoy and use often. These cookies are essentially a short bread with chopped pecans and maple flavors in the form of maple syrup. To get even more goodness from the maple, I also substituted some of the sugar in the cookies with maple sugar. The cookies are finished with half a nut and some coarse-grained sugar. Although these cookies are pretty easy to make, it takes a while for the dough to cool down in the fridge, so plan ahead. It can’t go wrong with butter cookies, and these maple-nut cookies don’t disappoint. The maple and walnuts taste good and the cookies literally seem to melt in your mouth. I can see that these cookies will have a place on my vacation cookie plateau for years to come!
Maple Pecan Shortbread
Prep Time: 2 hours 15 minutes Cook Time: 12 minutes Total Time: 2 hours 27 minutes Servings: 30
ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cake flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup pecans (toasted and finely chopped)
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup maple sugar
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 large egg white (lightly beaten)
- 1/2 cup pecan halves
- 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
directions
- Mix the flours, salt, and pecans in a large bowl.
- Cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the maple syrup followed by the egg yolk.
- Mix in the flour until it forms a dough.
- Form the dough into a 1 1/2 inch thick log, wrap it in plastic and let it chill out in the fridge for 2 hours to overnight.
- Slice the log into 1/4 inch thick slices.
- Place the cookies on a baking sheet 1 inch apart from each other, brush with the egg white, and top with the pecan laves and the turbinado sugar.
- Bake the cookies in a 350F/180C preheated oven until lightly golden brown on the edges, about 10-12 minutes, turning the baking sheet around halfway through.
