Autumn Maple Leaf Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup maple syrup, divided (be sure to use real maple syrup)
• 1 egg yolk
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Directions

1. 1

   Cream butter and sugar together.

2. 2

   Add 1/2 cup of maple syrup and egg yolk, mix well.

3. 3

   Sift in flour and salt, combine well.

4. 4

   Divide dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap and chill about 2 hours (this makes rolling and cutting the cookies possible. If you skip the chilling step you will have a huge mess when you try to roll them out!).

5. 5

   Heat oven to 350 degrees.

6. 6

   Roll dough 1/8 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters (leaf shapes are the most fun!).

7. 7

   Place on baking sheet (ungreased is fine).

8. 8

   Bake apx 12 minutes.

9. 9

   Cool on pan about 5 minutes and move to wire rack (leave them too long and they will stick!).

10. 10

    To make glaze- combine 1/2 cup maple syrup and 2 cups powdered sugar (be sure to sift the powdered sugar if you don't want lumpy glaze!). You can dip, drizzle or pipe on the glaze. You can easily cut the glaze in half- it makes a lot!