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!
Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
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
Jeffery D
Absolutely wonderful! I started the process of the recipe and realized I forgot I was plumb out of vanilla. To add flavor to it, as a replacement, I had some IHOP butter pecan syrup on hand. So did half that and normal syrup. Came out very tasty. Will be trying it the normal way next time.
Thank you again for a wonderful recipe ❤️👏🤤
Rebecca
Wow! These are wonderful! I love a soft, chewy cookie. I added walnut pieces to half of the batch and loved both ways. I took to our family Christmas party and received many compliments and many requests for your recipe. Thank you for another favorite recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for trying our recipe, Rebecca! We are so happy you enjoyed the cookies 🥰
Jordan
would subbing almond extract for the maple extract result in a good flavor you think? TIA!
Sam
Hi Jordan! I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure how it would taste. I think it could be good, but you will want to be cautious with the almond extract as it’s pretty potent. Let me know how it goes if you try it. 🙂
Lisa Kerekish
Oh my goodness, these cookies are absolutely out of this world!! Soft and chewy and full of maple flavor. Don’t forget to roll them in sugar before baking as the recipe states. I will make these all year long. DELICIOUS!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you liked them, Lisa! Thanks for the review 🩷
Brigette Jorge
I absolutely love your recipes!! I’ve tried many! these as well as your egg nog cookies (with & w/out the icing!) the “worst” chocolate chip cookies, the oatmeal chocolate chip bars- to name a few! you are my “go-to” soon I’ll be trying some of your savory recipes!!
Sam
Thank you so much, Brigette! I’m so glad you have enjoyed everything so much! I look forward to hearing from you again in the future. 🙂
Ryan Childs
Really good. Would definitely recommend not skipping the maple extract. I didn’t have any so I didn’t use it and the maple flavor was a bit subtle, but I’m sure with the extract it’s perfect. Still turned out amazing!
Mike
These cookies are so easy to make and they are always gone very quickly. The maple.extract is a must have to give these cookies the “pop” that makes them so enjoyable. I have made them.several times along with “the worst chocolate chip cookies ever” recipe and it’s a toss up which one is more popular. Thanks, Sam for all your great recipes.
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoys them so much, Mike! 🙂
Paula
Ok, Sam. Hopefully I don’t offend anyone, but I want you to read what my husband thinks of these cookies. “Wow, that’s a d*** good cookie”!!! And another “wow” to follow. He continued to say that he loved the buttery flavor, crispy edges, chewy center, and that he tasted layers of flavor; first the buttery flavor then the maple flavor. Another winner! We LOVE your browned butter toffee cookies (a huge fan favorite, the only change I make to these is I use homemade toffee instead of store bought), and we LOVE your coffee cake cookies. These are surely a new favorite. I will post a picture on my Instagram shortly and tag you. Thank you!!!! Make these people!!!!!
Sam
🤣 I’m so glad he enjoyed them so much, Paula! 🙂
Casey
Hi there. Im wanting to use pasteurized egg whites and heat treated flour so i can also have some edible dough from the recipe. How would I go about measuring out how much of the egg whites to use? Since there is no yolk does that mean I need more of the egg whites? I know this may seem like a silly question
Sam
Hi Casey! Honestly I haven’t tried it so you’ll really have to go off of consistency here. You could try milk as a substitute to the egg if you are just looking for a cookie dough. 🙂
Miriam Rose Blanar
I’m not sure where I went wrong. I followed the recipe to a T and they would not spread at all. They still tasted amazing though.
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Miriam! Did you happen to weigh your flour? It sounds like there may have been a touch too much flour in them. 🙁
Miriam
I did weigh it, but my scale has been acting up lately. Sometimes it switches to another metric system like ml instead of staying on grams. I figured it must have been the flour because the dough was slightly dry, but I didn’t want to waste them so I just bakes them anyways. Everyone loved them though. I need to try again and really pay attention to my scale next time. I put maple glaze on them so I think it worked out OK.
Sam
I hope they turn out better next time! 🙂
Susan MacGregor
Sam,
These were delicious. I was looking for a copycat type of recipe similar to the Tate’s vanilla maple cookies. These aren’t as crisp as Tate’s, but I love the softer chewy centers with crisp edges of your recipe.
Kennedy
Recommend keeping the dough in the fridge between rolling out batches. The warmer the dough gets, the more the cookies spread. The last batch was paper thin huge disks. Still tasted great. But would recommend keeping the dough cold through baking.
Elizabeth Justus
Fall weather again and this recipe sounds amazing! I would like to add pecans to this recipe. How much would you add and would I have to adjust any of the other ingredients if I added pecans? Thank you again for sharing the recipe!
Sam
Hi Elizabeth I would just chop the pecans up. Use somewhere between 1/2-1 cup and stir them in at the end. You shouldn’t need to adjust anything else. 🙂
Michelle
I am making a new cookie recipe every Sunday, this recipe was last Sunday, cookies were gone by Tuesday and by request making another batch tonight! Our 15 year old son says this is his favorite cookie.
One slight change I did make – since the recipe calls for melted butter I browned the butter 😏
Thank you for the recipe!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Michelle! 🙂
Devon
Hey Sam! Havent tried this one yet but every recipe of yours I’ve tried has been great! I have maple sugar on hand so was.going to roll them in that, do you think I should reduce the syrup or extract if I use maple sugar? Otherwise I will try and report back!
Sam
Hi Devon! I think it would be really tasty to roll them in maple sugar. I personally wouldn’t make any alterations as I like a nice maple flavor. 🙂