nutmeg maple butter cookies with maple glaze

It's not often that I have a real bonafide reason to bake. I mean, I invent tons of reasons to bake. It's autumn. I'm hungry. The trainers at the gym need sustenance. I need to avoid doing homework for a few hours. There is a random, obscure, or wholly made-up holiday approaching. The cat looks like she's craving [insert baked good here]. I need to use up those eggs, milk, butter, or other perishable good. You get the picture...I can concoct a reason to bake on any given day.

However, rarely do I have a REAL reason to bake. This week, however, I had one. You see, in my Tuesday night class, a sign-up sheet was passed around and each of us selected a week to bring snacks. I was inordinately excited, as you can imagine. I signed up for my week and began brainstorming. After much deliberation, I finally settled on these nutmeg maple butter cookies from Smitten Kitchen. The perfect treat for class. Easily portable, quick to throw together, and the taste? Like a butter cookie but so much better because they're flavored with maple syrup and nutmeg. Perfect. I even got crazy and added a maple glaze to really wow my classmates.

The night before class, I had a pretty row of leaf-shaped cookies laid out, the dough cooling and the glaze setting. I even made a point to tell my roommate that these cookies were off limits, so I would have plenty for my classmates.

You can only imagine how this story ends. As I waited for my cookies to set, I took a moment to check my email...only to find an email from my professor. Canceling class. (sigh) Oh well, more cookies for me and the roommate. And the cat who has DEFINITELY been craving nutmeg maple butter cookies lately. I can tell.

Who needs a "real" reason to bake anyway?

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies with Maple Glaze

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup (be sure to use real maple syrup here, not that imitation "pancake syrup" stuff)
1 large egg yolk
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

5 Tbsp maple syrup

4-5 Tbsp heavy cream

Pinch salt

Directions:
Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. With mixer running, add yolk and slowly drizzle in maple syrup. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, nutmeg and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix until just combined. The dough will be in loose clumps. Gather them together into a tight packet with a large piece of plastic wrap and chill dough for at least two hours (and up to four days) until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a few baking sheets with parchment paper. I like to roll out a quarter to half the dough at a time, leaving the rest in the fridge. On a floured counter, roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness and cut into desired shapes.

(I started with conservative circles, moved into ridged circles, then maple leaves and then, after reading a fascinating article about the acorn harvest this year, got forrest-ed away with acorns and oak leaves that a reader sent me a few years ago. Not that you asked any of this.)

Arrange cookies on baking sheets and bake for 8 to 11 minutes each, or until lightly golden at the edges. Transfer to racks to cool. Cookies keep in airtight containers for a week, or in the freezer until their dance number is up.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Source: cookie dough from Smitten Kitchen