Maple flavored sugar cookies – these acorn cookies are so adorable! I love having fun with decorations.
Prep Time1 hourhr30 minutesmins
Cook Time15 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr45 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: acorn cookies, cut out sugar cookie basics, maple cookies, maple sugar cookies
Servings: 36cookies
Author: Beth
Ingredients
Cookies
3cupsall purpose flourplus more for rolling
½tspsalt
2sticksunsalted butter1 cup
½cupgranulated sugar
½cuplight-brown sugar
1largeegg yolk
¾cupmaple syrup
Vegetable oil cooking spray
Royal Icing
4cupspowdered sugar
2tbspmeringue powder
5tbspwater
brown food coloring
SprinklesI used a mix of glitter gold and milk chocolate flakes
Instructions
Cookies
On the first day, combine the sifted flour and salt in a small bowl.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes.
Reduce the speed to medium-low, add in the yolk, beat again.
Then add in the maple syrup and beat again.
Add the flour to the mixture and beat until just incorporated.
Form the dough into 2 flat-ish balls and wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.
On the second day, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Using 1 dough ball at a time, roll the dough on a sheet of parchment paper sprinkled with flour. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness. Place the parchment paper on a cookie sheet and freeze the entire thing for 15 minutes.
Get another baking sheet and line that with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray. Remove the dough from the freezer and begin to use your cookie cutter to cut the shapes. Place the cookies on the second baking sheet, about 1 inch apart from each other and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, bake the cookies for 14 to 16 minutes or until they begin to turn golden brown.
Allow the cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before icing them.
Repeat the above steps until all the cookie dough has been used.
Royal Icing
Combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water in a mixing bowl and mix on low speed until the icing has a matte appearance, about 7-10 minutes.
Slowly add in the brown food coloring, adding more to get your desired color of brown.
Transfer some of the icing to a squeeze bottle and cover the bowl with a damp washcloth. This is to prevent the icing from hardening.
Begin to outline the edges of the acorn cookies, making sure to also add a line of icing between the top and bottom halves of the acorn. It is best to have your arm and hand resting comfortable on a table. Continue until all of the acorns are outlined.
Clean the squeeze bottle as you will need it again.
Now we want to use the icing to flood the top portion of the acorns. In order to do that, you will need to add more water to the icing so the consistency is thinner. Add 1 tsp of water at a time, stirring by hand, until the icing runs off the back of a spoon.
Transfer some of the icing to the squeeze bottle. Begin to flood the top portion of the acorn cookies with icing, using a tooth pick to help spread the icing to the edges. You don’t want to add too much icing, as this could cause the icing to overflow beyond the edges. Practice until you know how much icing you need. Immediately after flooding the top portion of the cookie add the sprinkles.
Continue to flood and add sprinkles to all of the acorns.
When all of the cookies are finished and set, store them in an air tight container.
Notes
Maple cookie recipe from Martha Stewart.A great resource with royal icing tips.