Autumn Leaf Maple Cookies
These colorful cutout marbled sugar cookies in beautiful fall colors are fun to make and everyone loves to find their favorite leaf-shaped cookie to eat. Lightly sweetened and with a hint of maple these cookies are perfect to pair with your favorite tea, coffee, or cider. Bake a batch for a fun Thanksgiving Sugar Cookies platter.
Servings 30
Calories 75kcal
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg I use large eggs
- 4 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1¾ cups AP flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple extract optional
- ⅛ teaspoon red gel food color
- ⅛ teaspoon orange gel food coloring
Instructions
Mixing the dough
- Add the softened butter to a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the brown sugar, baking powder and salt, and mix it in on medium speed until incorporated.
- Add the egg, maple syrup, and vanilla and mix on medium to combine. The mixture may look curdled or separated. For more maple flavor add maple extract.
- Add one cup of flour, and beat on medium speed to combine, then add in the rest of the flour, and beat in until combined.
- Alternately, use a kitchen-aide mixer to complete the steps above.
Coloring the Dough
- Separate the dough into thirds. This should be approximately 3/4 cups each or 6 ounces each.
- Wrap one of the doughs in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator, and put the other two doughs in two bowls.
- Place the other two pieces of dough in bowls and add about an ⅛ teaspoon of red and orange food coloring to each dough. Stir until the dough changes color. If the dough is not dark enough, add small amounts of food coloring to achieve the desired color.
- Wrap both of the doughs in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Cutting out the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 375° and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat
- Take the three doughs out of the refrigerator and cut into thirds. Using one third at a time place the doughs on a lightly floured surface for rolling.
- Roll each piece of dough into a 10"-12" rope and place all three ropes together on the floured surface. Holding one end of the dough, start rolling the dough toward you so the dough starts twisting. You will end up with one large twisted rope.
- Fold the dough in half and then using a lightly floured rolling pin roll out the dough to a 1/8" thick.
- Using leaf cookie cutters, start cutting out cookies, try to cut out the shapes close together so you do not have a lot of excess dough. Place the cut-outs on the baking sheet, then using a small paring knife, cut veins into each leaf.
- You will have scraps left from cutting out the cookies, place these to the side, and leave as flat as possible. When done cutting out each batch of cookies, take the scraps and start placing them close together, pressing with your fingers to form the dough. Lightly reroll the dough and cut out more cookies. You don't want to handle the colored pieces of scraps too much, or they will become one color of dough.
- Repeat cutting out the cookies. If you find the dough is getting soft, put it back into the refrigerator to chill.
- Bake the cookies for 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and place the cookies on a cooling rack
Notes
For more maple flavor add a teaspoon of maple extract.
These cookies do not spread and only take 7 minutes to bake.
On warm days, I have put the baking sheet with the cutout cookies in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to firm them up before baking.
For this batch of cookies, I used four different sizes of cookie cutters and got 28 cookies
Recipe adapted from BH&G
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 75kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Fat: 3.5g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 27mg