These were so delicious. Like a sugar cookie, but with a hint of maple. If you have any, you could use maple sugar to dust the top of these, instead of regular sugar. Also, we had maple leaf cookie cutters, which made a cute cookie. My kids loved them.

Maple Syrup Cookies

3/4 cup sugar + extra for dusting
1 cup (8oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg yolk
3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (I used a light whole wheat— Prairie Gold)
1/4 teaspoon salt

The day before you plan to make the cookies, make the dough:
Beat together the sugar and butter with an electric beater on high speed for about 3 minutes. Add the maple syrup, vanilla and egg yolk and mix for 1 minute. Sift the flour and salt directly into the butter/sugar mixture. Beat at medium speed until combined – about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate overnight.

I did find that these were incredibly hard when they came out of the refrigerator and that it really needed to sit out for probably an hour or more before it was a good consistency for rolling out.

Preheat oven to 350°F. To make the cookies:
Butter two baking sheets. Divide the dough into two equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8-inch thick. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and place on prepared cookie sheets, about 1 inch apart. Gather scraps, reroll and cut out as many additional cookies as possible. Repeat with second dough portion. Dust the cookies with granulated sugar. Bake for 9-12 minutes, until they are lightly golden. Remove and cool on racks. If you let these sit too long, they will become cemented to the cookie sheet. If that happens, pop them back in the oven for about a minute, just long enough to remelt the butter, and they’ll slide right off.

Storage:
May be stored at room temperature in an airtight container up to 4 days. May be frozen up to 1 month.