Maple Shortbread

The girls are back!! Break is over and that means that the hallways of the SFW dormitory are once again filled with noise- I'm so over the eerie silence that fills the place on vacation days. With school in full swing again, so is prompt twelve am curfew which on a few nights a week is accompanied by sweet treats. (I hope this doesn't mean bread is on the back burner...) The girls followed their noses down our hallway until they arrived at our room, wondering what smelled of maple syrup and waffles. The answer? This batch of maple shortbread that I made using the remains of my prized maple sugar brought from the states on my last trip. Extremely easy to whip up and delightful in the simplicity of its ingredients, shortbread is always a winner. Add some maple to the mix and... you can finish that sentence. The prepared pans are dusted with maple sugar and topped with it too, adding a nice crunchy crust. The recipe calls for a full teaspoon of salt. I thought this made the dough itself a bit salty, but the end product was well balanced, not salty at all. The cookies are buttery and ethereally good. Be sure to cut them right when they come out of the oven while they are still warm; leaving them to harden and then trying to cut them wont be easy, it just results in crumbled, broken cookies. Cut them thin to yield more. (I didnt get a shot of the final product-- all the girls had invaded the room and I couldnt whip out the camera without having to explain...)

Maple Shortbread

KAF Cookie Companion

3/4 cup maple sugar

1 cup unsalted butter or margarine

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1-2 tsp maple extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 300. Lightly grease two nine inch round pans.

Sprinkle each pan with a tablespoon of maple sugar.

Place 1/2 cup maple sugar and all of the ingredients except the flour in a large bowl.

Cream until light.Add the flour,

and beat to incorporate.

Portion the dough evenly among two pans and pat it out to fill them.

Dock the dough--- attractively or otherwise. Sprinkle each pan with a tbsp of maple sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until its golden brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen the edges. Using a wire rack to help you, turn out the cookies onto a wire rack in one piece. Place them on a smooth, even surface. Using a knife or a pizza wheel, cut the cookies into wedges. Return to the rack to cool.

All that was left....