These simple and elegant maple cinnamon star cookies are adorned with white chocolate, gold sprinkles, and edible glitter stars. Start with my sugar cookies and add maple extract and cinnamon for wonderful flavor.
Sugar cookies are fabulous, but adding an extra level of flavor changes everything. Brown butter sugar cookies, or vanilla bean shamrock St. Patrick’s Day cookies, anyone?
Why You’ll Love These Maple Cinnamon Star Cookies
Like my Christmas sugar cookies, today’s sugar cookie recipe is cookie cutter style. We get the same great flavor combination as these maple pecan snickerdoodles, but we’ll roll the dough out and cut into adorable stars. What makes these stars unique are the flavors mingling inside: cinnamon + maple. Combine these two powerhouse flavors with shimmering gold sprinkles, edible glitter stars, and white chocolate and we’ve got a sugar cookie putting many others to shame. You’ll love these cookies and here’s why:
- Elegant and festive
- Lots of warm cinnamon spice with sweet maple flavor
- Perfect for celebrations of any kind like holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays
- Fuss-free decorating—a simple dunk into white chocolate
- No royal icing needed
- Fun to make!
How to Make Maple Cinnamon Star Cookies
Helpful Baker’s Tip
Have a little flour nearby when you’re rolling out the cookie dough. Keep your work surface, hands, and rolling pin lightly floured. This is a relatively soft dough.
The Order of Steps is Important
Let me explain why I do this. To prevent the cookies from over-spreading, the cookie dough must chill in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough right after you prepare it, then chill the rolled-out dough. (At this point the dough is too soft to cut into shapes.) Don’t chill the cookie dough and then try to roll it out because it will be too cold and difficult to work with. I divide the dough in half before rolling it out and highly recommend you do the same. Smaller sections of dough are simply more manageable.
Another trick! Roll out the cookie dough directly on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper so you can easily transfer it to the refrigerator. Pick it up, put it on a baking sheet, and place it in the refrigerator. If you don’t have enough room for two baking sheets in your refrigerator, stack the pieces of rolled out dough on top of each other.
Beautiful maple cinnamon stars! (Similar 3-inch star cookie cutter found here on Amazon.)
Maple Cinnamon Star Cookie Decorations
Let’s keep the garnishes simple—this way the cookie’s flavor can truly shine. Here are a few ideas for maple cinnamon star cookie decorations:
- White Chocolate: Instead of decorating with traditional royal icing, give the maple cinnamon sugar cookies a dip in melted white chocolate chocolate. For best taste and texture, I strongly recommend using pure white chocolate, not white chocolate chips. It’s usually sold in 4 ounce bars in the baking aisle. I love Ghirardelli, Bakers, or Nestle brands.
- Dark Chocolate: Try a drizzle of dark chocolate! All these flavors pair wonderfully together.
- Gold Sprinkles: I love this simple gold sparkly sugar and this gold sprinkle mix. Press the sprinkles down into the cookies before baking—this helps the sprinkles stick. Just use the back of a spoon.
- Gold Stars: How CUTE are these edible gold glitter stars?! Add the edible glitter stars after pressing the other sprinkles down. I don’t suggest doing this *before* pressing the others down because the stars will stick to your spoon instead of the cookie.
One Last Success Tip
Use maple extract—not pure maple syrup. While I typically reach for the latter in my baking, sugar cookie dough is notoriously picky when it comes to add-ins. Maple extract is potent and a little goes a long way. We’d need a few Tablespoons of pure maple syrup to achieve the same flavor that only 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of maple extract has. This larger amount of pure syrup would radically change the sugar cookie dough because there would be too much liquid. We could add more flour to make up for it, but the cookies would be dry. It’s frustrating! To avoid all this, use the maple flavoring. (I use it in my maple brown sugar cookies, too!)
Maple Cinnamon Star Cookies Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, maple extract, and vanilla extract and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Dough will be a bit soft. If the dough seems too soft and sticky for rolling, add 1 more Tablespoon of flour.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Place each portion onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4-inch thick.
- Lightly dust one of the rolled-out doughs with flour. Place a piece of parchment on top. (This prevents sticking.) Place the 2nd rolled-out dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Carefully remove the top dough piece from the refrigerator. If it’s sticking to the bottom, run your hand under it to help remove it. Using a cookie cutter, cut into star shapes. Transfer the cut cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough. (Note: It doesn’t seem like a lot of dough, but you get a lot of cookies from the dough scraps you re-roll.)
- Before baking, top with sprinkles. Use a spoon to press the sprinkles into the cookies so they stay secure on top.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. If your oven has hot spots, rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before dipping into chocolate.
- If using, melt the chopped white chocolate in the microwave in 20 second increments, stirring after each until completely melted. Dip the cookies into the white chocolate and allow chocolate to set completely at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
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