Maple Sandwich Cookies

I love this cookie! It’s my new favorite! If you’re into anything maple you’ll love these too. It all started with a sandwich cookie I came across at a speciality store. I loved this store bought sandwich cookie but it seemed to lose flavor in the second or third bite. I began a search for a similar homemade variety and settled on King Arthur’s with a few tweaks. What a perfect cookie for this time of year.

Recipe

Baked in a 300 F oven for about 25 minutes. It may take longer if you have a slow bake oven.
Makes 10 3-inch sandwich cookies. I say double the recipe!

1/2 Cup softened butter
1/4 Teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 Cup maple sugar
1/2-1 Teaspoon maple extract
1 Cup all purpose flour + more if needed*

Cream together the first 5 ingredients.

Add the flour and mix just until the dough comes together. *If the dough seems sticky add a T more of flour. The original recipe called for 1 cup flour + 2T. I found that created a really dry dough.

Remove dough to waxed paper and wrap tightly & refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Remove chilled dough to a lightly floured surface. If you have doubled the recipe work with only half the dough at a time.

Roll out dough to just less than 1/4 inch. Cut with a cookie cutter and place onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies until the edges begin to brown up slightly or the overall cookie begins to take on a light brown hue.

Remove from oven and cool.

Filling

1 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons softened butter
1/4 Teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons maple syrup (The real deal, darker is better for flavor.)
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon maple extract
1 Tablespoon milk or cream if needed for spreadability

Cream the first 6 ingredients and add milk a little at a time if needed.

Spread filling on top of bottom cookie and place another cookie over the top. Give cookie time to set up before serving if you can wait.

For optimum freshness wrap tightly and serve within two days. Freeze any extras for later.