Thin & Crispy Cinnamon Maple Leaf Cookies
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Buttery, thin, crispy, Cinnamon Maple Leaf Cookies! These Fall foliage-inspired cookies are made egg-free with just a handful of ingredients. I think you’ll find that they’re quite different than most of the soft and chewy cookies I usually share, but they’re every bit as addictive!
Recipe includes a video tutorial at the bottom of the post!
Here’s something different for you today, an ultra thin & crispy cookie!
I’ve had the idea in my head for these Cinnamon Maple Leaf Cookies for a while. Fall seems to have mostly evaded us (we had snow here last week already), but enough of my walks with the dogs have been accompanied by the soundtrack of dried maple leaves crunching underfoot that I got the idea for a crispy maple leaf-inspired cookie.
Because I think about everything in terms of cookies, evidently.
I thought these might be a good fun last-minute Thanksgiving dessert idea, and I have a few tips to share with you to make sure they come out just right. I also really recommend checking out the video at the bottom of the recipe if you do decide to make these. The dough is very different from most of my cookie dough, and if you’re a visual learner I definitely think it will be helpful for you.
Maple Syrup
One of the key ingredients in this recipe is that I use maple syrup (also a key ingredient in my Worst Chocolate Chip Cookies!). This gives the dough a nice flavor, but it is not going to give these cookies an overwhelming maple flavor.
If you’re looking for a stronger maple flavor, I recommend cutting the amount of vanilla extract used in half and adding maple extract. I included notes on how to do this in the recipe.
I prefer to use real maple syrup in this particular recipe, but I’ve found that imitation/pancake syrup works just fine, too.
Tips for Making Thin & Crispy Maple Leaf Cookies
Sandy Dough is Easiest to Work With
A crumbly, sandy dough (as pictured above) is what you’re trying to achieve when mixing everything together. However, if you happen to overmix your dough and it’s clinging together more than it is sandy, your cookies will still turn out! The dough will be a bit more difficult to work with (which is why I recommend keeping things sandy) but you don’t have to pitch your dough if it’s sticking together.
Another thing that I’ve found to be helpful: I roll out my cookie dough about a quarter of the dough at a time. Any scraps that are leftover I keep separate, then once I’m done rolling out all of my cookie dough then I’ll re-group the scraps and roll them out. I’ve found that it’s easier to combine the scraps with each other rather than try to work the sandy dough and scraps together.
Keep Your Dough Thin and Even
The thinner you can roll these cookies the better! I recommend rolling them to 1/16″, which is quite thin! This will ensure nice, crisp cookies.
Make sure you roll your dough evenly, if you have some cookies that are thicker than others on the same tray, then the fatter ones will be underdone and will be chewy in the center and the thinner ones will burn!
Keep an Eye on Your Oven
These cookies bake on a low temperature for about 8-10 minutes, but keep a close eye on them, especially your first batch! They need to cook until they are a light golden brown. They may not feel crisp immediately after coming out of the oven, but they will be by the time they cool. Let them cool completely on the baking sheet.
Just about any 2″ cookie cutter will work for this recipe, but here are the cookie cutters that I used to make mine (affiliate).
Enjoy!
Be sure to check out my tutorial VIDEO just below the recipe! If you enjoy these videos, please consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel so you can be the first to see all of my cooking videos <3
Cinnamon Maple Leaf Cookies
Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup (150 g) light brown sugar, tightly packed
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract*
- 1 teaspoon maple extract, optional
- 1 ⅔ cups (210 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
TOPPING
- ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer). Use an electric mixer and beat until creamy and well-combined.6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, ¾ cup (150 g) light brown sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Add maple syrup, vanilla extract, and maple extract (if using) and beat again until creamy.2 Tablespoons maple syrup, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract*, 1 teaspoon maple extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.1 ⅔ cups (210 g) all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture until the flour is absorbed (you shouldn’t see any white from the flour). The mixture will be sandy and crumbly but should hold together when pressed between your fingers (see photo in post or video below for visual).
- Tear off a piece of parchment or wax paper and lay it on a clean surface. Pour about ¼ of your crumbly cookie dough onto the parchment paper and top with another piece of parchment/wax paper. Press dough down with your hands to lightly flatten and then use a rolling pin (over the second piece of parchment paper) to roll your cookie dough 1/16” thick. Gently peel away your top layer and use your cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Transfer to prepared cookie sheet, spacing cookies about ½” apart. Save and re-roll any scraps to get as many cookies as possible out of this dough.
TOPPING
- Prepare topping by mixing together sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over cookies.¼ cup (50 g) sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Transfer cookies to 325°F (165°C) oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, turning halfway through baking. Bake until cookies are light golden brown (but not burnt!). Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet before enjoying.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I made these for a Canadian friend’s shower. With the detailed written instructions and the video, the process all went smoothly. The rollout suggestion of sandwiching the dough between parchment paper along with my marble rolling pin made dough easy to work with. Really delicious and a cute little treat. Thank you!
Thank you so much for trying my recipe! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
I have the Grandkids coming to make Christmas Cookies and want to make the dough a few hours before they come and put it in the refrigerator. Can I do this with this cinnamon maple leaf cookie?
Sure thing! 🙂
These cookies are different—in a GOOD way! They’re crispy and tasty and pretty. (By the way, for those of you who don’t like maple, I don’t think I could even taste it—they’re very “cinnamony”.) I thought they were going to be a pain to roll out and cut, but it really wasn’t all that bad—I was even able to roll out larger chunks so that I could cut several cookies at a time. Thank you, Sam, for another great cookie recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Heather! 🙂
I would have given them a 5 but they were HORRIBLE to cut and bake. the dough constantly fell apart and took forever to do. By the end, we had a whole 2 c bowl full of scraps! I”ve made lots of roll cookies and I, sadly, will not make these again. Way too time consuming to deal with but the flavor was really good!
While tasty, these cookies were extremely difficult to roll out and I had to add extra butter to be able to work with the dough at all
Do you have a maple filling recipe? I could make these in sandwich form, like the maple leaves cookies I grew up on.
Hi Brigitte! We don’t, but you could always try making the frosting for our Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies and swapping out the vanilla (or part of the vanilla) for a maple extract. If you do, let us know how it turns out! 🙂
Hi I tried these and loved them! Though some friends thought they were a little too crispy. Any tips on making them a little softer? Should I bake them for less time?
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cookies, Eboni! I would bake them a little less. 🙂
Hi Sam…I just made this…turned out good, but I had some issues at first with the dough being too grainy (did not hold together when rolled out). I solved it by adding 2 more tablespoons of butter and remixed…also added a very light sprinkling of water (less than a teaspoon). Also, the re-roll of the dough causes crispy/chewy cookies versus crispy. All in all, it was a recipe I’m glad i tried, but too much work.
Can you leave out the maple syrup? I’m not a fan but these sound good with the cinnamon.
Hi Christine! You could probably replace it with either honey or corn syrup. And of course you can leave out the maple extract.
Okay so this dough is brutal to work with at first (the sand note was 100% accurate, lol)… but after I got the hang if it they turned out really good. I skipped the cinnamon entirely, and used maple sugar to top the cookies. The husband loves them and anything maple is always yummy. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I am sorry that you experienced issues in the beginning but I am so glad that you got the hang of it and you enjoyed the cookies, Danie! Thanks for commenting. I appreciate your feedback. 🙂
It’s a new idea of cookies to make sure that it would be very crunchy and light I would like to try thanks for sharing this recipe
Thank you, Farzana! Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
I have found that wrapping a fat ponytail elastic around each end of my rolling pin makes it so the dough is rolled out thin and even.
I have not tried that. I will have to do that next time. Thanks, Heather! ☺️