Maple Pecan Cookies (Slice and Bake)
These buttery, crunchy Maple Pecan Cookies are made with real butter, maple syrup and brown sugar. It's a slice and bake shortbread cookies recipe glazed with a thin maple icing perfect for your Christmas tray or anytime!
Servings: 66 cookies
Calories: 11 ½ inch cookie
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter softened
- ¾ cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups chopped pecans, lightly toasted*
Maple Icing
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
- Beat softened butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until creamy. Add brown sugar and beat on medium speed 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Gradually add 3 tablespoons maple syrup, scraping down sides as needed.
- Combine flour and and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture while the mixer is on medium-low speed just until all the flour is incorporated. Do not over mix.
- Add the pecans and mix just until the pecans are incorporated.
- Decide if you want two cookie dough logs or three. Place two or three 13 to 15 inch pieces of plastic wrap or wax paper on the counter.
- Divide the dough in half or into thirds. Spoon the dough evenly down the middle of the sheets of plastic wrap. Shape the dough into logs using the plastic wrap by rolling it back and forth. If making 2 logs, they should be about 13 inches long. If making 3 logs, they should be about 10 inches long. You can make them any size you want depending on how large you want the cookies to be.*
- Twist the ends to seal the plastic wrap. Place them on a baking sheet or cake pan and put them in the refrigerator 1 ½ hours or freezer 45 minutes or until firm.
- Let cookie dough logs soften at room temperature from the refrigerator 10 minutes or just long enough to slice easily. If frozen, let thaw in refrigerator overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
- Working with one cookie dough log at a time, remove plastic wrap and cut it into slices between ¼ and ½-thick. Place the cookies on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets about 1 ½- inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden.
- Let the cookies cool 1 minute on the cookie sheet before transferring to cool completely on a wire rack. Repeat procedure with remaining cookie dough roll.
Maple Frosting for Cookies
- Combine powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons maple syrup and water, stirring until smooth.
- Spread the icing over the cookies with a spoon, dip the cookies in the icing or brush the icing over the cookies with a pastry brush. The icing will firm up in about 20 minutes.
- Yield: about 5 dozen cookies
Notes
Great for gifting: Give a cellophane bag of cookies tied with a ribbon full of baked cookies. Give a frozen cookie dough log wrapped in wax paper along with a cookie sheet and a spatula as a gift.
How to lightly toast chopped pecans: 1) Air fry at 350F degrees for 2 to 3 minutes, shaking or stirring once. 2) Bake at 350F degrees in an oven for 5 minutes, stirring once.
How to soften butter in the microwave: Microwave (1100 watts) 2 sticks of butter, unwrapped, at HIGH for 10 seconds. Turn both over and microwave an additional 8 seconds. Reduce the time if you wattage is higher than 1100 watts.
Two 13 inch cookie dough rolls cut between ¼ and ½ inch thick will yield about 5 or 6 dozen (1 ½-inch-wide) cookies. Three 10 inch cookie dough rolls cut same thickness will yield about 30 (2-inch-wide) cookies.
