Maple Walnut Slice-and-Bake Cookies

Here’s another recipe I used from a physical cookbook (authored by a baker who started out with a food blog). The maple walnut flavor was a great way to add diversity to my Christmas cookies this year. I decorated half of the cookies with festive sprinkles and the other half with crushed walnuts.

I very much enjoyed these cookies, but its fans were in the minority.  The maple flavor is derived entirely from an extract that I found lost its flavor quickly as the cookies spent time in the freezer and sat out on the counter-top. Eventually, they started to taste more like a bland shortbread than the original intended flavor. I wonder if a recipe using both maple syrup or maple sugar would retain the flavor better.

 

MAPLE WALNUT SLICE-AND-BAKE COOKIES
Based on a recipe in this book.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (150 g) packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp. maple extract
1 1/4 cups chopped walnuts, divided
1/2 cup (60 g) coarse sugar, for rolling
8 oz. white chocolate bars, coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, and salt.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium-high speed for ~1 minute.
  3. Add the brown sugar and beat on medium-high speed ~2 minutes.
  4. Add the egg and maple extract, then beat on high speed ~1 minute until combined. Scrape sides as needed.
  5. On low speed, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until combined.
  6. Beat in 1 cup chopped walnuts.
  7. Turn dough out onto floured work surface, bring together, then divide in half.
  8. Shape each half into an 8″ log, about 2 1/2″ in diameter.
  9. Wrap each log with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours.
  10. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheets.
  11. Pour course sugar onto large plate.
  12. Remove logs from refrigerator, then roll in coarse sugar.
  13. Slice each log into 12 cookies, and place 2″ apart on baking sheet.
  14. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until brown around the edges.
  15. Cool cookies for 5 minutes on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
  16. Melt white chocolate in double boiler. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper.
  17. Dip each cookie halfway into white chocolate, then sprinkle remaining walnuts on dipped part. Allow white chocolate to set for 30 minutes on prepared baking sheet.

NOTE: The recipe yielded ~24 cookies. I baked my cookies for 12-13 minutes.