Soft and slightly crinkly, these melt-in-your-mouth maple brown sugar cookies are made with all brown sugar and infused with cozy maple syrup. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Warm & Cozy Maple Cookies
These maple brown sugar cookies are one of my all-time favorite cookies. In fact, I love this recipe so much that it actually inspired me to create my super popular worst chocolate chip cookies after I realized how utterly amazing maple syrup tastes in cookie dough!
So warm, so cozy, and deliriously soft and chewy, these cookies are perfect fall or winter cookies and absolutely belong next to a glass of milk for Santa on Christmas Eve!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy! No mixer needed, since we are starting with melted butter. Unfortunately this means we will have to chill the dough, but I promise these cookies are worth the wait!
- Soft, tender texture thanks to a few carefully selected ingredients (two types of brown sugar, cornstarch, melted butter) and my favorite cookie baking technique. They nearly melt in your mouth!
- Prominent, but not overpowering maple flavor. It adds a cozy and familiar taste that makes these cookies perfect for cooler weather, just like my brown butter blondies.
- The dough can be made in advance or even frozen, making this recipe perfect for holiday cookie baking! If you need more inspiration for Christmas cookies, check out my 12 days of cookies email series.
Ingredients
- Maple syrup. I’ve made these cookies many times using both pure maple syrup and plain old Aunt Jemima, and I like them both ways. Pancake syrup has a more prominent, more fragrant flavor, and it is far less expensive. But the cookies still taste wonderful with pure maple syrup (and we’ll be enhancing the flavor with some maple extract anyway!).
- Brown sugar. I recommend a blend of dark and light brown sugar. If you only have one on hand, use only light brown (all dark brown would be too sweet). Note that the only granulated sugar we are using today will be for rolling the cookies before they bake.
- Melted butter. Starting with melted butter means our cookies will have a more buttery flavor AND we won’t need to use a mixer (just like my chocolate snickerdoodles!). Make sure to let your butter cool down after melting; adding the sugars when the butter is too warm can create a greasy, unusable cookie dough.
- Cornstarch. I love using cornstarch to make chewy cookies! It thickens the dough without making it cakey (like flour would). I use this in so many of my cookie recipes, from my apple pie cookies to my pecan sandies.
- Maple extract. We’ll amp up the maple flavor even more with some maple extract.
SAM’S TIP: Make sure your egg comes to room temperature before you add it. Adding a cold egg to the otherwise room temperature dough could shock it. If you forget, pop your egg in warm water for 15 minutes or so to warm it up before drying it off and cracking it in the dough.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Maple Brown Sugar Cookies
Make the dough
Melt the butter, then let it cool to the touch before stirring in your sugars and maple syrup. Do not rush this step, or you could melt your sugars and create a super greasy, unusable cookie dough!
Stir in your egg and extracts, then set aside while you combine your dry ingredients.
Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in 3-4 parts. This helps keep the dough manageable and allows the dry ingredients to fully absorb.
Cover and chill
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place the dough in the fridge for at least an hour or up to five days. If you pull your dough out of the fridge and it still seems too soft, you can bake a test cookie to see how much it spreads. If it spread too much, pop your dough back in the fridge a little longer.
Roll and bake
Scoop and roll the dough into 2-tablespoon balls. Roll through granulated sugar before baking on parchment lined sheets until the edges are light golden brown. The centers will still look underdone, and that’s totally fine! We’ll let the cookies finish baking on the hot sheets outside the oven for soft and chewy results.
SAM’S TIP: If you don’t feel like rolling your cookies, you can drop them directly onto the baking sheet and sprinkle the tops with sugar instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! You can add up to 1 cup of chopped nuts (toasted pecans would be tasty!) to the dough right before chilling. Note that when you add nuts to a cookie dough, the cookies often don’t spread as much. If your first tray stays a bit more ball-shaped than you’d like, just lightly flatten the rest of the cookies before baking.
You will want to freeze it after chilling, and I recommend rolling the cookies into balls before you do so. I provide detailed instructions on how to do this with this recipe and pretty much every other cookie recipe in my post on how to freeze cookie dough.
Sure! You can either swap the granulated sugar coating for cinnamon sugar, or you can add your spices to the dough. If you choose the second option, I would start with ½ teaspoon and go from there.
If you try these cookies, please leave me a review below to let me know how you like them. I really appreciate it!
Enjoy!
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Maple Brown Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 1 ½ cup (300 g) brown sugar tightly packed
- ⅓ cup maple syrup (pure or faux — I honestly prefer Aunt Jemima!)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple extract
- 1 large egg (room temperature & lightly beaten.)
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- Granulated sugar for rolling or sprinkling
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Melt butter in large, microwave-safe bowl and allow to cool completely.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter
- Stir in brown sugar and maple syrup until completely combined.1 ½ cup (300 g) brown sugar, ⅓ cup maple syrup
- Stir in vanilla extract and maple extract.1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon maple extract
- Add egg and stir until well-combined.1 large egg
- In separate, medium-sized bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon salt
- Gradually (about ¼ of the mixture at a time), add the flour mix to the butter mixture and stir until completely combined.
- Chill in refrigerator for at least one hour (may chill longer, up to 5 days).
- Once dough is about 30 minutes from being ready, preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Once dough has chilled, scoop into 2-Tablespoon (45g) sized scoops. Roll in or sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar and bake for 10-12 minutes.Granulated sugar for rolling or sprinkling
- Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet. Do not put dough for following batches on hot cookie sheets, cookie sheets should always be room temperature or colder.
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Originally posted 11/18/15 — Updated 12/23/16 and again December 2024
Jess
These cookies turned out amazing! Would I be able to use a gluten free flour for this recipe as well? I have family with Celiac and would love to making them cookies for the holidays.
Sam Merritt
Hi Jess! I’m glad you enjoyed them! I don’t personally have experience using gluten free flour here so I can’t say for sure how it would work. If you do try it I would love to know how they turn out. 🙂
Emma
Would I be able to brown the butter for this recipe? Also, would that enhance or detract from the flavor?
Sam Merritt
Hi Emma! I think browning the butter could work nicely with maple, but you may have to adjust the recipe due to the loss of moisture when browning the butter. Since I haven’t personally done it I can’t recommend exactly how to do it. Enjoy! 🙂
Christina
These cookies are amazing, I’ve made them twice so far and everyone loved them. I also love how Sam makes the recipe/steps so easy to follow.
Elle
Can I substitute baking soda for this recipe?If so any suggestions?
Sam Merritt
Hi Elle! I wouldn’t recommend omitting the baking soda here. 🙁