These Maple and Pecan Shortbread Sandwich Cookies are the most delicious, most adorable, showstoppingly cookies ever. They are Autumn personified, or cookie-fied if you will.
Here we go again, another Autumnal cookie recipe. Some would say I was obsessed, they’d be correct. Autumn is the ultimate cookie season and if you think we’re gonna be stopping here you’ll be sorely mistaken. I got cookies till the cows come home!
This Maple and Pecan Shortbread Sandwich Cookies are up there with some of my favourites. Not only are they utterly scrumptious but they’re damn beautiful to boot. These cookies make the ultimate seasonal gift, they’re easy enough that you can knock them up without much stress and they look so impressive they’ll be sure to knock the socks off any recipient. Talk about brownie points, or shall we say, cookie points? Ok, I’ll go home now….
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- Unsalted Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature before you start, this makes blending the sugar much easier.
- Caster Sugar – A fine grain sugar which creams with butter quickly and easily.
- Eggs – Always large, always free range!
- Maple Syrup – Use pure maple syrup, not the flavoured kind.
- Pecan Nuts – Toasted and chopped.
- Icing Sugar – Also known as confectioners sugar.
- Milk – Any kind you have to hand will do here.
Tips for making Maple and Pecan Shortbread Sandwich Cookies:
- Chilling – Shortbread dough always needs a stint in the fridge before baking. I recommend popping the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes prior to rolling it out then again after cutting the shapes. This ensures your shapes stay sharp.
- Glazing – Let the excess glaze drip off the cookies before placing them on a wire rack. Add the pecans before the glaze gets a chance to harden.
- Freezing – The unglazed, unfilled cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months. The Dough can also be frozen, just wrap in a double layer of cling film and defrost at room temperature.
- Seasonal Changeups – I’ve included a list of variations below so you can change up these cookies according to the seasons. Don’t forget to change the cookie cutter too!
Flavour variations:
This shortbread is super easy to adapt, change it up according to the seasons or just to use up whatever’s in your cupboard.
- Chopped Nuts – Walnuts, Hazelnuts, Almonds
- Citrus Zest – 1tbsp Lemon Zest, Orange Zest, Lime Zest. These flavours pair very well with a drizzle of melted chocolate.
- Chocolate – Chopped Dark, White or Milk Chocolate or dip the baked shortbread in melted chocolate.
- Dried Fruit – Finely chopped Cranberries, Cherries, Blueberries
- Plain – Leave the maple syrup and the chopped nuts out if you just want a delicious and traditional shortbread cookie!
More Autumnal Cookie Recipes:
Gilmore Girls Coffee Cake Cookies // S’mores NYC Cookies // Taylor Swifts Chai Spiced Cookies // Chewy Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Print
Maple and Pecan Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
Description
These Maple and Pecan Shortbread Sandwich Cookies are the most delicious, most adorable, showstoppingly cookies ever. They are Autumn personified, or cookie-fied if you will.
Ingredients
For the Shortbread:
- 125g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 200g plain flour
- 75g caster sugar
- 1tbsp maple syrup
- 75g pecans, finely chopped (save 25g for decoration)
For the glaze:
- 125g icing sugar
- 125g maple syrup
- 1tbsp melted butter
For the maple buttercream:
- 100g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 250g icing sugar
- 2tbsp maple syrup
- milk as needed
Instructions
For the shortbread:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter, maple syrup and sugar until light and fluffy, around 3-5 minutes.
- Add the flour and 50g of the chopped pecans and mix until just combined.
- Dump the shortbread dough onto a lightly floured surface and bring it together with your hands to make a ball. Flour the surface again and roll out to around 1/2cm thickness.
- Using your favourite cookie cutter (I used a maple leaf) cut out as many cookies as you can and pop them on a lined baking sheet. Re-roll your scraps and keep cutting and repeating until you’ve used all of your dough. Place the baking sheet in the fridge for 30 minutes – 1 hour until they’ve stiffened up.
- While your cookies are chilling preheat the oven to 175C and line another baking sheet with parchment. Remove the cookies from the fridge and spread them between the two trays allowing a little space between each cookie (see notes). Bake for 10 minutes until just golden around the edges.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cookies are cooling make the glaze and buttercream
Make the Glaze:
- Pour the icing sugar, butter and maple syrup into a medium sized bowl and mix until smooth. If you find your glaze is too thick, add a splash of maple syrup. Too thin, add a table spoon of icing sugar. You want it to add a thick coat to your cookies.
- When the cookies are completely cool dip half of them into the glaze. Allow the excess glaze to drip off and pop them back onto the wire rack to dry.
- Sprinkle with a few more chopped pecans.
Make the buttercream:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the icing sugar, butter and maple syrup until light and fluffy. If your buttercream is a little thick add a tiny splash of maple syrup and mix again until you get a nice piping consistency.
- Fill a disposable piping bag with the frosting and snip off the end leaving an opening of around 1cm. Pipe the buttercream on the non glazed cookies, following which ever shape you’ve chosen. Place a glazed cookie on top of the buttercream creating a delicious sandwich and leave until the glaze is fully set.
Notes
- These cookies don’t spread too much so you don’t have to leave as much space as you normally would.
Those cookies are so cute! Can’t wait to give them a try! Thanks!
★★★★★
These cookies are beautiful! And they taste so good. They’re pretty easy to make to.
★★★★★
These are so beautiful. They will be great on a plate to serve to my guests. Yummie!
★★★★★
Katie you made these cookies are pretty. I hope mine will turn out like that too. Printed for the weekend!
★★★★★