Maple walnut shortbread is easy to make, with a buttery, crumbly texture and delicious maple walnut flavor that’s perfect for the holidays. This is a delicious and classic cookie to add to your Christmas cookie boxes!
You might also love these high altitude recipes for soft and chewy brown sugar pecan cookies, iced maple leaf sugar cookies, and raspberry thumbprint sugar cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy to Make. The shortbread dough comes together so fast in a food processor, then you simply press it into your tart pan.
Standard Pantry Ingredients. You only need staple ingredients from your pantry and fridge to make maple walnut shortbread.
Long Shelf Life. One of the best things about shortbread is how long it stays fresh, and the flavor seems to even improve with age. You can store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for several weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
Versatile Recipe. If you like, you can swap out the walnuts for pecans, macadamia nuts or almonds. Use a round fluted tart pan as shown in today’s recipe to cut classic wedges of shortbread, or a long rectangular tart pan to cut the cookies into bars. Or you can roll out the dough and cut out individual shortbread cookies with any shape cookie cutter. You could even drizzle the walnut shortbread with a sweet icing, or dip it in melted chocolate.
High Altitude Tested. Although this particular recipe will work at any altitude, mountain bakers can bake with confidence knowing that I develop and test all of my recipes at Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Flour. Use all-purpose flour to give the dough structure and strength.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens the shortbread, while the fine texture makes a more tender cookie than if you used granulated sugar.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances the flavor of the walnuts.
- Butter. A key ingredient in shortbread! The butter is what makes this walnut shortbread tender and rich, with a buttery, crumbly texture.
- Milk. You’ll need just a little milk to help moisten the dough and bind it together.
- Walnuts. Use unsalted walnuts, pecans, almonds or macadamia nuts, whichever you prefer. If your nuts are salted, then just reduce the extra salt a little.
- Spices. You’ll need ground cinnamon, cloves and cardamom, as well as vanilla extract and maple extract. You can leave the maple extract out if you don’t want the maple flavor.
Instructions
Make, Cut and Chill the Dough
- In your food processor, measure the flour, powdered sugar, salt, spices and 1/2 cup of the walnuts. Pulse several times until well combined and the walnuts are finely chopped and dispersed throughout the mixture.
- With the processor running, drop the butter down the chute, a tablespoon at a time, and process the mixture until moist and crumbly.
- Add the vanilla extract, maple extract and milk, and process just until the dough comes together into a dough ball.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and gather any dry floury bits together, shaping the dough into a disk, and lightly dusting it with a little extra flour.
- Line the bottom of a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom with a circle of parchment paper. Press the dough into an even layer in the pan.
- Use a toothpick, skewer or cake tester to prick the dough all over – this is called “docking the dough”, and helps prevent it from puffing up as it bakes.
- Finely chop the remaining 1/4 cup walnuts, sprinkle them on top of the dough, and lightly press them into the dough.
- Now cut the dough into 12 equal wedges, using a sharp knife or bench scraper, dipping it in flour in between cuts. I used a bench scraper, which I find easiest for cutting dough inside the pan. Cutting the dough before baking makes it much much easier to cut without breaking it after it comes out of the oven.
- Refrigerate the shortbread for 30 minutes.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 300 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the chilled shortbread for about 45 minutes, until the top looks golden brown and baked through.
- Set the pan on a cooling rack, and immediately cut the shortbread again. Cool completely in the pan before removing the sides of the pan.
- Store the baked shortbread in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use any kind of nuts in this recipe?
Yes, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and almonds all work well in this walnut shortbread recipe.
Will this recipe work at any altitude?
Yes, it will.
Can I use maple syrup instead of maple extract?
No, the maple flavor in pure maple syrup isn’t concentrated enough to be a suitable replacement for maple extract. The addition of maple extract adds such a nice flavor to this maple walnut shortbread, but you can also leave it out for just walnut shortbread.
Can I roll out the dough to cut cookies?
You sure can! See my vanilla bean shortbread cookies post for instructions on rolling and cutting the dough into individual cookies.
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Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
Maple Walnut Shortbread
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
- 9-inch Round Tart Pan with Removable Bottom
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- ¾ cup raw unsalted walnuts, divided
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp maple extract
- 3 tbsp whole milk
Instructions
Make, Cut and Chill the Dough
- In your food processor, measure the flour, powdered sugar, salt, spices and 1/2 cup of the walnuts. Pulse several times until well combined and the walnuts are finely chopped and dispersed throughout the mixture.
- With the processor running, drop the butter down the chute, a tablespoon at a time, and process the mixture until moist and crumbly.
- Add the vanilla extract, maple extract and milk, and process just until the dough comes together into a dough ball.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and gather any dry floury bits together, shaping the dough into a disk, and lightly dusting it with a little extra flour.
- Line the bottom of a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom with a circle of parchment paper. Press the dough into an even layer in the pan.
- Use a toothpick, skewer or cake tester to prick the dough all over – this is called "docking the dough", and helps prevent it from puffing up as it bakes.
- Finely chop the remaining 1/4 cup walnuts, sprinkle them on top of the dough, and lightly press them into the dough.
- Now cut the dough into 12 equal wedges, using a sharp knife or bench scraper, dipping it in flour in between cuts. I used a bench scraper, which I find easiest for cutting dough inside the pan. Cutting the dough before baking makes it much easier to cut without breaking it after it comes out of the oven.
- Refrigerate the shortbread for 30 minutes.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 300 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the chilled shortbread for about 45 minutes, until the top looks golden brown and baked through.
- Set the pan on a cooling rack, and immediately cut the shortbread again. Cool completely in the pan before removing the sides of the pan.
- Store the baked shortbread in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
Hi Heather!
I really wanna do this to give as gifts to my neighbors but I’m not gonna buy the tart pan. I do have a 9 inch springform pan. I might give that a go. What are your thoughts?
I think a springform pan would work perfectly fine.
Thank you!
It baked beautifully! 41 minutes and perfect crust, I need a little work on cutting but your tip on using the bench scraper was awesome!
It’s a keeper!
Thank you so much
Kim
I love your recipes and have made several of them – delicious!. I’m going to make this cake today.