These brown butter maple sandwich cookies are light, buttery and filled with a creamy maple buttercream filling! They're an easy, delicious fall dessert or Christmas cookie!
You might also like these biscoff butter cookies or these maple cupcakes!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients to make these brown butter maple sandwich cookies!
- Almond Flour - I like substituting a portion of the all purpose flour with almond flour in all my cookies! It yields a more tender cookie with just that slight almond flavor. But you can leave it out if desired!
- Egg Yolk - This helps bind the cookies and hold their shape.
- Pure Maple Syrup - If you do nothing else, please use REAL maple syrup for these cupcakes! It can be a little pricey but the flavor is unmatched! Use dark maple syrup for the most robust flavor!
- Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter!
Browning the butter is [technically] optional but the extra time is SO worth it! The biggest problem I see people run into when using brown butter in cookies, is not letting the butter cool completely to room temperature before adding it to the dough.
How to Make Stamped Cookies
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the room temp brown butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
Then add in the maple syrup and egg yolk and mix until smooth.
Fold in the flour, almond flour, and salt until just combined.
Press the dough into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm (2 hours minimum but ideally overnight).
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough ¼ inch thick. Generously flour the top of the dough and your cookie stamps, then stamp your designs close together on top of the dough. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out around the stamped dough.
For the cute patterns I use these Nordic Ware cookie stamps and a 2 ¾ inch round cookie cutter from this set but you can cut the cookies in whatever shapes you like!
Place cutout cookies 1-2 inches apart on your baking sheet (they won’t spread much).
Place the baking sheet in the freezer for a minimum of 20 minutes (or the fridge for 40 minutes) before baking to allow the cookies to firm back up. This ensures the cookies won't spread during baking.
While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges are set and just starting to brown. Bake on the middle rack of the oven and rotate the pan halfway through baking for the best results.
Let the maple cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack.
Let the cookies cool completely before filling with the maple buttercream!
Tips for Perfect Cookies
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, crumbly cookies that don't spread.
Make sure your oven is the proper temperature! Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is exactly 350°F. If the oven is too cold, the cookies will spread too much and if it's too hot they centers won't bake all the way through. For example, my oven is about 20 degrees off. So I have to set the oven to 370°F in order to get it to bake at 350°F.
Use a lightweight, light colored baking sheet for best results! Believe it or not, a lighter pan makes the cookies bake more slowly than a dark pan, which helps keep them from spreading too much. My favorite pans for baking cookies are:
You also want to use either parchment paper or silicone mats on your cookie sheet to help keep the cookies from spreading.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, on the center rack. This will ensure all your cookies cook evenly and the bottoms don't burn. Then let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches. This ensures the cookies cook evenly and don't spread too much by being put on a hot pan.
Always under-bake the cookies! If you slightly under-bake the cookies (so the centers are still soft when you remove them from the oven), they'll stay soft and chewy for days!
Do the cookie scoot! In order to get perfectly round cookies, use a large cookie cutter to gently scoot them around as soon as they come out of the oven!
Recipe FAQ's
You can store these cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Chilling the shortbread cookie dough allows the flour to hydrate a bit and ensures the butter is super cold. This keeps your cookies from spreading too much and completely flattening out. It also ensures the pattern stays pressed on the top of the cookie.
Nope! You can regular unsalted butter if you prefer! I just love the way the brown butter pairs with the maple syrup!
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
More Recipes You Might Like!
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Recipe Card
Brown Butter Maple Sandwich Cookies
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup almond flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Maple Buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, optional
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup maple syrup
Instructions
Cookies
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the room temp brown butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
- Then add in the maple syrup and egg yolk and mix until smooth.
- Fold in the flour, almond flour, and salt until just combined.
- Press the dough into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm (2 hours minimum but ideally overnight).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough ¼ inch thick. Generously flour the top of the dough and your cookie stamps, then stamp your designs close together on top of the dough. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out around the stamped dough.
- Place cutout cookies 1-2 inches apart on your baking sheet (they won’t spread much).
- Place the baking sheet in the freezer for a minimum of 20 minutes (or the fridge for 40 minutes) before baking to allow the cookies to firm back up. This ensures the cookies won't spread during baking.
- While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges are set and just starting to brown. Bake on the middle rack of the oven and rotate the pan halfway through baking for the best results.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack.
- Let the cookies cool completely before filling.
Maple Buttercream
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened brown butter, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and salt until smooth and creamy.
- Slowly add in the maple syrup until fully combined. Beat the buttercream for 3-4 minutes on high speed until light and fluffy.
- If desired, transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a large tip and then pipe onto the back of a cooled cookie (you can also just take a spoon and spread some on there). Then top with a second cookie and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Becca says
I don’t have cookie stamps so I just made round cookies, but they were delicious!!