Frosted Maple Cookie Bars
Delicious fall cookie treat. These maple cookie bars are soft, moist and slathered with maple and cinnamon flavored buttercream frosting.
My little man and I did some baking this weekend. I was actually a little taken back by his ambition to bake. He wanted cookies and he helped me every step of the way. He actually helped me a little too much…
First, we made cookie dough and baked the cookie part of these bars. Then, I let the pan sit there while it cooled completely and laid out some of the ingredients for frosting. I was letting butter get to room temperature and pulled out a bag of powder sugar. While everything was cooling (and warming up), I decided to go fold some laundry and take a shower. I came back into the kitchen about an hour later and noticed that butter and sugar were missing. Dun dun duuuun….
I looked around, I asked hubs, and nothing, it was just gone. Then, I looked over at the counter where the cookie bar base was cooling and noticed powder sugar around my mixer. I looked into the mixer and sure enough, butter was in the mixer, somewhat mixed with powder sugar and an empty sugar bag next to it. Oy!
Apparently, little man took it upon himself to make the frosting. Luckily, this moment was considered adorable because I had just enough powder sugar left in the bag to use for this recipe so the ingredients were not wasted. The only thing is, I had to beat the heck out of the butter because there is a reason why you should cream butter first and sift in powder sugar…lumps. But all was good because frosting was extra smooth and silky.
Frosted Maple Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- Cookie:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp maple extract
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- Dash of salt
- Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract optional
- 1/2 tsp maple extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 baking pan.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar for a couple of minutes on medium-high speed.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat until mixed. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Beat in maple syrup.
- Turn off and sift in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix ingredients on low speed until just combined. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and mix a couple more times.
- Spread cookie batter in the baking dish, evenly.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes. Take out and let it cool completely before frosting.
- Frosting:
- Beat butter on medium-high speed for a couple of minutes.
- Turn off the mixer and sift in powder sugar and cinnamon. Start mixing on low until sugar is incorporated. Beat on high for a couple more minutes.
- Drizzle in maple syrup and vanilla extract while mixing and beat for about 30 more seconds. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and beat for a few more seconds.
- Once cookie is completely cooled, evenly spread the frosting on top.
Nutrition
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More Sweet Recipes From Me:
Gooey Loaded Peanut Butter Cookies
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Maple is one of my all-time favorite flavors so I was so excited to make these! The cookie base turned out really good; however, the frosting was a miss. I left the vanilla out but all I could taste was cinnamon, zero maple. And I used my whole bottle of real Vermont maple syrup! Also, the ratio of butter to powdered sugar was off. All I could taste was butter and it actually had started separating by the time I served them. They ended up going in the trash:(
I’m really excited to make this recipe do I store it in the fridge or can I store it on the counter
Hi! I just made these for a ladies bookclub luncheon dessert. They smelled wonderful baking and are just finishing cooling so I can frost them. I noticed you have 1 tsp of vanilla in frosting ingredients but in the instructions for making the frosting it doesn’t say when to add it! I added in with the maple syrup. I kind of wish I hadn’t as I taste the vanilla more than the maple but maybe not when eaten as a frosted bar! I’m sure they will be yummy but wanted to tell you about the missing step!
Hi Kym! Thank you so much for letting me know. I add vanilla at the same time as well but if you don’t feel like adding it, you can skip it all together. I hope everyone enjoyed the cookie bars and thank you for letting me know that I was missing the step 🙂
Would these be easily adapted to sandwich cookies?
Hi Leigh,
Do you mean whoopie pies? If so, they have a cake-like texture and these cookies are pretty similar to a typical chocolate chip cookie. You can make individual cookies by just rolling the dough into 1-inch balls and baking them for about 9-11 minutes. You can always put two of those cookies together like a sandwich (just make sure they are cooled first). I’m just not sure if you want the end result to be like a whoopie pie or not.
I could take a triple bar right now. I’ve been on go all day and those look like they would give me that added flavor boost. Great pictures and I love the combination of ingredients.
Thank you so much, Marisa! I bet your family would love them 🙂
Love that these are made with real maple syrup Lyuba! And maple – don’t even get me started! It’s my FAVORITE!
Thank you, friend!! 😀