Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
In your honour, I whipped up possibly my 2nd favourite cookie EVER (after ginger molasses, of course). Wanting to use some of the maple syrup my family sent down from Ontario, I found inspiration in the traditional alfajor cookie - what about maple and dulce de leche doesn't sound incredible?! That's right - maple shortbread alfajor cookies sandwiched with creamy milk caramel and topped with maple sugar. Ooooooh Canada.
As more time passes, the more I miss the Great North. Luckily, I've been working with Parks Canada on a media project and get a little Canuck-love once a week via conference call. It doesn't nearly suffice, to say the least. In the meantime, we've come up with a Tim Hortons action plan and I keep baking things with maple in them.
I found this recipe online - although I can only speak to how awesome the cookies are since I stumbled upon a jar of Dulce de Leche a couple of weeks ago and didn't try making it from scratch.
from SouthAmericanFood.About.com
1 cup of butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 egg yolk
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup corn starch
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp maple sugar
1 egg, beaten
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter with brown sugar and maple syrup. Add the flour, corn starch, salt, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix until smooth (use your hands if easier).
Divide the dough into 2 halves. Roll out the first half on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters and re-roll to cut out more cookies. My batch made a total of 30 cookie sandwiches (60 cutouts).
On one half of the cutouts, brush the tops with the beaten egg and sprinkle a little maple sugar. Leave the other half of the cutouts plain. These will be the bottom of the alfajor. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are light brown. Mine took 9 minutes. Cool for a few minutes and then place on cooling racks.
Spread the plain cookies with dulce de leche and then top with the maple sugar-topped cookie. Done! These are perfect for the holidays - or just because you keep a secret stash of pure Canadian maple syrup in the back of your pantry... like me.
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| Cookies for my co-workers! |
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