High altitude soft maple cookies, made with real maple syrup, and spiced with a pinch of cardamom. The edges of the cookies are crunchy, crusted in sugar, with soft, chewy, thick centers that are simply delicious. You’ll love baking these cookies for the holidays!
You might also love these maple cinnamon pumpkin scones, salted maple pumpkin cake, and maple penuche sheet cake.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Soft Chewy Texture. The maple syrup in the cookie dough helps to keep these cookies super soft, even days after baking.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter. The butter adds flavor and richness, and I almost always bake with unsalted butter, so I can control the salt level.
- Granulated Sugar + Dark Brown Sugar. A combination of sugars adds more complex flavor and sweetness to these soft maple cookies. If you have maple sugar, you can certainly experiment with that, too, to add even more maple flavor. Maple sugar would be especially good for coating the cookie dough balls.
- Egg. Adds structure, binds the dough together, and acts as a leavener.
- Pure Maple Syrup. Use a dark or very dark pure maple syrup for the best flavor.
- Maple Extract + Vanilla Extract. Since these soft maple cookies only use three tablespoons of maple syrup in the dough, we need to give the maple flavor an extra kick with some maple extract. Vanilla extract, too, complements the maple and enhances the flavor of the cookies.
- All-Purpose Flour. Provides structure to the dough.
- Corn Starch. A small amount of corn starch in cookie dough tenderizes the proteins for a very soft cookie.
- Baking Soda. Leavens the cookies, making them puff up as they bake.
- Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Cardamom. A pinch of cardamom nicely complements the maple and vanilla flavors. Feel free to omit it, though, if you don’t like cardamom.
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar for 5 minutes on medium speed, until fluffy.
- Scrape the bowl down, and mix in the egg, maple syrup, vanilla extract and maple extract.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, baking soda, salt and cardamom. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients by spoonfuls, mixing just until the dough is combined.
- Use a medium cookie scoop with a release lever (approximately 1 1/2 – 2 tbsp capacity) to scoop 2 dozen balls of dough.
- Roll the dough balls in the 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Cover the dough balls and chill in the refrigerator for two hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the chilled cookie dough balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheet, and bake on the center oven rack for 8 minutes. Optional: while the cookies are hot from the oven, use a round cookie cutter with a circumference that’s larger than the baked cookies and “scoot” it around the cookies to pull the edges in for a perfectly circular cookie.
- Cool the cookies on the pan for 1 minute, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
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
Leftover cookies should be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or wrapped well and frozen for 3-6 months.
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High Altitude Soft Maple Cookies
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
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- Medium Cookie Scoop with Release Lever (1 1/2 – 2 tbsp capacity)
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar (plus 1/4 cup for rolling the cookies)
- 6 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp maple extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ tbsp corn starch
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- â…› tsp ground cardamom
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar for 5 minutes on medium speed, until fluffy.
- Scrape the bowl down, and mix in the egg, maple syrup, vanilla extract and maple extract.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, baking soda, salt and cardamom. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients by spoonfuls, mixing just until the dough is combined.
- Use a medium cookie scoop with a release lever (approximately 1 1/2 – 2 tbsp capacity) to scoop 2 dozen balls of dough.
- Roll the dough balls in the 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Cover the dough balls and chill in the refrigerator for two hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the chilled cookie dough balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheet, and bake on the center oven rack for 8 minutes. Optional: while the cookies are hot from the oven, use a round cookie cutter with a circumference that's larger than the baked cookies and "scoot" it around the cookies to pull the edges in for a perfectly circular cookie.
- Cool the cookies on the pan for 1 minute, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
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I made these cookies, and 5 other types at Christmas time. I distributed them to my friends and this was hands down everyone’s favorite. I’m making them again today! Thank you for sharing and thank you for introducing me to maple extract, which I ‘ve been using in my tea daily haha
I’m so confused. I made these tonight and they don’t seem to look as brown as yours. They also didn’t spread quite as much. Not sure what I did wrong.
First attempt I totally forgot the dark brown sugar. Oof.
Second attempt I made sure I included everything and yet they still weren’t quite right.
Help!
Leaving out the brown sugar would definitely make a difference, as that promotes browning and spreading in cookies. For the second time, if you followed the recipe, are you also at high altitude? This is a high altitude recipe, so if you’re at a lower altitude or sea level, your cookies won’t spread as much without adjusting the recipe for your altitude. You could also try flattening the dough balls before baking them if you’d like the cookies to spread out more.
I’m currently making these, but they are very dry after I add the flour. Any idea what’s going on?
It’s possible you added too much flour! Be sure you’re measuring your flour correctly by lightly spooning it into the measuring cup them leveling off the top. If you use the measuring cups to scoop the flour, it will pack too much in, resulting in dry baked goods.
Theses maple cookies are so delicious. I followed the recipe exactly and they were as close to perfection as you could get. I baked two batches and put one batch of the baked cookies in the freezer. Three weeks in the freezer, they were as good as ever. Soft and buttery in the middle with a slight crunch to the outside of the cookie.
I’m so happy you loved them!
I made these today and they were a huge hit- perfectly soft and chewy with great flavor. I will definitely be adding these to my frequently made cookie list!