The warm flavor of maple sugar mingles with toasty walnuts in these buttery maple walnut shortbread cookies. Roll them out or slice and bake!
Maple walnut shortbread cookies are a unique fall treat that you’ll come back to time and again throughout the season. And don’t be surprised if they’re the first to disappear from your holiday cookie collection!
- Maple and walnuts have a complex, lingering flavor that makes these cookies so, so special.
- This flavor combination is a seasonal classic.
- I use maple sugar, which is crystallized maple syrup (unrefined and minimally processed.)
- Find it in natural food stores, and you can always buy it from online, here.
- Substitute brown sugar if you need to, and use maple extract for a flavor boost.
shortbread’s unique texture
Shortbread has a texture like no other dessert. It can bake up melt-in-your-mouth soft or crisp/crumbly depending on the thickness and bake time, but it will never be chewy like a chocolate chip cookie ~ and that’s exactly the point. What gives these maple walnut shortbread cookies that magic texture?
- No added liquid
Classic shortbread dough skips milk, and eggs, so there’s very little gluten development and no puffing or chewy bite. - Lots of butter
Butter coats the flour, keeping the crumbs ultra-tender and giving that lush, sandy-soft finish we love. - A touch of cornstarch
Cornstarch (naturally gluten free) lowers the gluten even more and creates that delicate, velvety crumb.
two ways to make maple walnut shortbread cookies
- CLASSIC CUT OUTS. Roll out the dough and cut with a cookie cutter.
- SLICE & BAKE. Form the dough into a log and slice and bake.
- Simply mix up the dough as written in the recipe and roll it into a log. Chill until firm and then slice it up and bake. The log of dough can sit for up to a week in your refrigerator, or up to 3 months in the freezer (make sure to wrap it well.
3 tips for perfect maple walnut shortbread cookies
These three tips go a long way toward eliminating baking fails during the busy holiday season.
- Use good quality butter (stock up when it goes on sale and freeze it) don’t go for the budget brand, it contains more water, for one thing, and will affect the texture of your cookies.
- I use these aluminum baking sheets for all my cookie recipes, the pans bake evenly and never warp.
- I keep an inexpensive oven thermometer in my oven at all times so I know exactly what the temperature is. It has a convenient hook on the top so you can hang it from the oven rack ~ mine just lives there.
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Maple Walnut Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup maple sugar, (substitute light brown or granulated if you like.)
- 1/2 tsp pure maple extract, optional
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- sugar for rolling cookie edges, optional
Instructions
- Line baking pan with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and the sugar together until well combined, scraping down the bowl as needed to get everything incorporated. Beat in the extract.
- Whisk together the flour and cornstarch. Blend them into the butter and sugar, until it forms a dough.
- Fold in the walnuts and make sure you get them well distributed in the dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured suface and bring together into a smooth disk. Gently roll out to about 1/3" thick. Cut out cookies and, if desired, roll the edges in sugar. Transfer to your lined cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between each one.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Refrigerate the cookies for 15 minutes while you clean up.
- I bake my cookies in 2 batches. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Baking on the shorter end will result in a softer cookie, while ones baked longer will be crunchier.
- Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then cool completely on a rack. If you like you can roll the warm cookie edges again in sugar for a super sparkly look.
Nutrition
more maple please!
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I don’t much like nuts, so usually substitute seeds (okay, or chocolate chips!) for nuts. However, someone suggested using rolled oats, instead of the walnuts. Really good!
Hi! May I know what cornstarch is for? If I omit, do I need to make any adjustments to the recipe? Thanks!
The cornstarch makes the dough a little more tender, Emma, but you can substitute the same amount of flour.
Wow! I cannot wait to try these, only with gluten free flour though. Maple walnut was always my mother’s favorite ice cream flavor, having been a serious New Englander. So, of course, it’s mine too. In the 50’s when I was little, that flavor ice cream was offered in all the roadside ice cream stands in Connecticut. Sighhh. Clearly not a flavor in Florida, where I live now. Thank you!!
Let us know how it works with gluten free flour Alene 🙂
Absolutely love these cookies! And I always have lots of maple around, so I’m all set 🙂
These look delicious! Our family is gluten and cane sugar free and these cookies could really fit the bill! Any chance these could be modified to be gluten free? Given the walnuts it might be conceivable to use a nut flour in substitute? Thank you!
I have made shortbread with Bob’s Red Mill gf baking mix, and it came out fine, but of course the texture is compromised a bit. I would love to try ground walnuts, but I’m not sure it would hold together, please let me know if you experiment!
These look divine! So packed with walnuts! Thanks for the great recipe!
When these are made with brown sugar are they as good? Thank you for all the yummy maple recipes!
Well, I think they lose a little in the maple flavor, but brown sugar gives them a nice depth because of the molasses, so it’s a wash! You can adjust the amount of maple extract to taste.
I Love a good shortbread cookie and the maple flavor sound so good, I can’t wait to try them! Thanks for the tips too!
My cup of tea it is. Thank you so much !
I want to get started with my Christmas cookies, so will need to be able to freeze them. Are they freezable, with or without the icing? Thanks, Sue.
I like to freeze frosted cookies without the frosting, Gill. But you can do it either way. You can also freeze the log of dough for later.