Maple Cream Cookies

Happy Canada Day!!

In Canada, maple syrup is a pretty big deal for us…we have festivals and many treats (maple cream cookies, maple candies and maple butter, to name a few) all focused around it. And for a good reason too, it’s delicious!

Luckily enough for us (and the rest of the world) maple syrup is a yes for the indulgent paleoist…therefore these cookies are a must.

But before we get into these delicious cookies, I just want to clear up a few things. You see, I thought it would be funny to put something along the lines of top- ten-reasons-you-know-you’re-Canadian-when sort of list. However, as I was researching and reading lists, it was quite clear to me that some of the reasons were not submitted from someone from the Great White North! So, as a life-long, proud Canadian, I’m going to clear up a few myths .

Myths (myth is in red) :

1. It’s winter year-round in Canada! No, absolutely not. We have spring, summer, fall and winter. Temperatures range from -60ºC (the only time I’ve ever heard of this happening was in the Yukon) to 40ºC!
2. All Canadians live in igloos. No. If whoever thought this had known it wasn’t winter year-round here, they may or may not have figured this out.
3. Canadians have pet penguins. Actually, we have pet dogs and cats and fish.
4. Canadians think Peter Mansbridge is sexy. Well we sure don’t, but I think whoever came up with that one does!
5.  Canadians use money from the board game Monopoly in place of real money. No, just because our money has different colours so it’s easier to distinguish between bills without looking too closely does not mean we got it from a board game. In fact, many countries do this as well.

Truths:

1. -10ºC is mild weather.
2. We do substitute beer for water in cooking (unless you eat paleo!) and it’s damn delicious.
3. We do apologize to people no matter who bumped into who!
4. Canadians know the French equivalents of “free”, “prize” and “no sugar added”, thanks to your extensive education in bilingual cereal packaging. Yes, this one is true. But all that means is we have a head start on learning a new language.
5. When abroad, we make it clear we are Canadian because we don’t like being mistaken for…anything other than Canadian 😉

 

Back to the cookies! So if you’ve ever had maple cream cookies from Canada, you’re going to love these! Super sweet and in the shape of the maple leaf, they are perfect for Canada Day!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 2 tbsp arrowroot starch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• An additional 1 cup maple syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Mix the first four ingredients together.
3. Add the next four and stir until combined.
4. Refrigerate the dough for around 1 hour.
5. Roll out the dough between 2 pieces of waxed paper until 1/4″ thick.
6. I used my special maple leaf cookie cutter…but you can make them whatever shape you want!
7. Bake on greased cookie pan for 15 minutes, or until firm. These cookies get a little crunchy…that’s why I prefer to just slightly undercook them.
8. While the cookies are cooking and cooling, you need to make the maple cream.
9. Put your extra 1 cup maple syrup (be sure to use light! not amber or dark) in a saucepan and turn the heat onto high.
10. Put your candy thermometer into the syrup and watch carefully, we need to heat it to 233ºF exactly. Once your syrup is boiling, I would suggest turning the heat down to medium so that you don’t overheat the syrup.
11. Once it reaches 233ºF, remove from heat.
12. Put into a high-walled bowl and using a hand mixer, whip the syrup. Whip it until it no longer looks like maple syrup, and instead looks like maple cream! (pale, opaque, and creamy mmm). WARNING: as you are whipping it, you’ll see bubbles forming in the maple syrup. At one point, the bubbles will be very thick…whip just past this stage. You want to stop whipping as soon as it turns from tons of bubbles to opaque. If you keep whipping it past this stage, it will be very difficult to spread onto your cookies.
13. Distribute the cream evenly onto half of the cookies.
14. Match up the cookies with the cream with the cookies without the cream.
15. Enjoy your homemade, Canadian maple cream cookies!

I’ll be honest, I was really, really nervous to try making the maple cream. But I was pleasantly surprised because it was really easy! Just be sure to use a good quality candy thermometer and not to overheat it.