Oh I like this one, but keep it away from the kids (or not 🙂 ). This is a quintessential adult cookie. The taste of whisky combined with maple syrup makes you feel like you are in a log cabin in the mountains, snow billowing outside, a roaring fire in the fireplace and a grown up sized dram of whisky in hand! Oh I can dream! (Well of course my wife is with me!!) This is another 2022 Christmas Treat and is slightly adapted from Christina Tosi, Whisky Maple Cookies.
I love anything by Christina Tosi. I don’t try a lot of her recipes as I don’t have her patience for her attention to detail nor do I like multiple steps. I’m more of a mix, bake and eat kinda guy! This one though, just looked amazing when I saw it and after baking and trying it, I was blown away with the taste. The whisky sugar (like citrus sugar but bbeetttteerr) really completes the cookie. I did use maple syrup (by weight) as I couldn’t find maple extract – flavor came through nicely.
I once did a class which needed maple sugar and we couldn’t find any in the store. It was a key ingredient so as an experiment I poured maple syrup onto a parchment covered baking sheet and baked at 325f until it firmed up, cooled it and crushed it – homemade maple sugar! I’m telling you this as you could add this to the Whisky sugar for a reinforced maple taste. Caution, the first batch burned as I left it in too long, the second batch was just fine – about 15 minutes in total but check at 10, 12, 15, 17 etc.
All in all, this is a delicious cookie which I would definitely make again (and again). It makes a great addition to the sweet table or “sweet board”. Out of this batch, I got 44 cookies using a 1 tbsp. scoop measure. I baked half of them without flattening and got a thicker cookie, the other half I flattened for a slightly larger but flatter cookie. Both were delicious – baking time was the same.
Suggestions and/or Substitutions
Use a liqueur like Grand Marnier, Amaretto, etc to make the sugar and flavor the cookie
Single malt scotch – in a cookie?!? Be still single malt purists, this is only for the culinary adventurous
Ingredients for the cookie:
225g unsalted butter, room temperature
140g granulated sugar
175g light brown sugar
1 large egg
2g maple extract or the equivalent in maple syrup
2g vanilla extract
5g whisky – your favorite brand
385g all-purpose flour
2g baking powder
1g baking soda
7g kosher salt*
Ingredients for the Whisky sugar:
30g whisky
200g granulated sugar
Directions
1. Heat the oven to 370f – line two baking trays with parchment – set aside
2. Using your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix butter and sugars on high for 2 minutes until light and fluffy
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, extracts and whisky – add the mixture to the batter and continue to beat on high for 2 – 3 minutes until fully incorporated
4. On low speed, add in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix for 1 minute just until mixture comes together to form an uniform cookie dough
5. In a small bowl prepare the Whisky sugar by whisking the whisky into sugar until evenly distributed – it will be like wet sand – don’t worry it works
6. Scoop the dough into small balls – I used a small scoop and dropped into the whisky sugar
7. Roll the balls to coat in the sugar, place on the baking trays pressing down lightly for a flatter cookie or leaving it as a ball for a mounded cookie or pressing down for a flatter cookie centimeters apart onto a greased or lined baking tray –
Note, my baking trays are 15 x 18 and I got 20 mounded cookies (2 ¼” diameter after baking) on one tray and 24 flatter cookies (almost 3” diameter after baking) on the other
8. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes – rotating trays half way through – until golden brown (mine took 11 minutes in my oven)
Cool completely before enjoying
