For the shortbread:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter, maple syrup and sugar until light and fluffy, around 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the flour and 50g of the chopped pecans and mix until just combined.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Allow the cookies to cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. While the cookies are cooling make the glaze and buttercream

Make the Glaze:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.