Professor Butter Beard’s Salted Maple Espresso Cookies
Five dozen cookies
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
Zest of one lemon
2 Tbsp instant espresso powder
Two sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more for a final garnish sprinkle
5 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla paste
2 large eggs, room temperature
Icing:
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
3 Tbsp maple syrup
4 Tbsp warm water
¼ tsp kosher salt
1) Line four (five or reuse the first one) sheet pans with parchment paper.
2) In the bowl of a standing mixer, using the paddle, stir together the granulated sugar, lemon zest and espresso powder until evenly combined. Add the unsalted butter and cream together for 4-5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
3) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
4) Add the maple syrup and vanilla paste to the creamed mixture and beat to combine. Then add the eggs, one at a time, and again beat to combine.
5) Add the dry mix all at once. Mix together at a low speed until the mixture forms a dough. Do not overmix.
6) Using a 1½ Tbsp scoop, portion the dough into roughly five dozen balls, placing them on one of the parchment-lined sheet pans. Refrigerate the dough balls for 30 minutes to one hour.
7) When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place 12 chilled dough balls onto one of the parchment-lined pans.
8) Bake one pan at a time on the center rack for 8 minutes, rotate the pan and bake for another 4 minutes until the edges of the cookies are just beginning to brown. While one pan bakes, prepare the next dozen for baking.
9) Cool the cookies on the sheet pan for ten minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
10) Once the cookies are cool, whisk together the icing ingredients. Dip the cookies into the glaze as desired and then sprinkle the icing portion of the cookies with kosher salt as desired.
