Maple Morsels- Gluten free Spritz Cookies

I love Spritz Cookies

Each the perfect little size for popping into hungry mouths, but small enough that you can happily take a handful and still not feel guilty!
Such a small amount of effort, but it sure looks like you've been cooking up a storm as pile after pile of little moreish morsels stack up, and by dint of changing the shape you have created a whole new cookie too :)

Do you remember Dear Readers, me showing off some yummy maple products in my November In My Kitchen post? (look here,) Well I wanted to use them a bit more creatively then just slathering them over pancakes or waffles, and as the sugar was really quite expensive I also wanted to find a way to make a little go a long way.
I figured the best way to get bang-for-my-buck was to layer the flavour effect with Maple Syrup and Sugar in the cookie dough, glaze with Maple Icing, then dust with Maple Sugar- too much is never an option!

Gorgeous sticky Syrup and fine-as-sand Sugar, you can see I couldn't help running my fingers through it :)

Another ingredient I wanted to trial today was this new Spread from Liddells. Liddells have released quite a lot of new products in the chiller section lately, and as I've been loving them I thought I'd see how it stood up to cooking as opposed to just spreading

Glazed Maple Spritz Cookies

Cookies:

1 1/2 cups Liddels Lactose Free Dairy Spread (or lactose free/dairy free alternative)
3/4 cup Castor Sugar
1/2 cup Maple Syrup
1/3 cup Maple Sugar (or just use 2 tab Castor Sugar if you can't find any)
1 Egg
4 cups gluten free Plain Flour
1 tsp gluten free Baking Powder

Glaze:
gluten free Icing Sugar
Maple Syrup
Maple sugar for dusting


Cream together the sugars and spread, and beat until nice and light and fluffy

Add in the egg and maple syrup and mix again

Gently mix in the flour and baking powder until just pulled together

A nice light dough- don't chill it or it will be too firm to push through the spritz press properly

If you don't happen to have a Cookie/Spritz Gun, this dough works really well just rolled and flattened into little discs. It may need to bake for a minute or two longer, but it still tastes just as lovely- I promise

Prepare your dough ammunition

Load up your Cookie Gun

Fire when ready!

So pretty indeed

Bake your little Spritzies for 12-15 minutes at 180*C
Let them cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling down

To Glaze the cookies, combine the icing sugar with enough maple syrup to make a nice thin mixture. The easiest way I've found to get a nice even coating without taking ages to dip each little baby, is to line all the cookies up closely and paint them. The wider your brush the better. Much easier than fussing around any other way. Then while the glaze is still wet, sprinkle with the Maple Sugar or a little Castor Sugar for extra bikkie bling

These little Cookies were just lovely indeed. Very tasty and surprisingly not too sweet for me. The Maple Sugar is subtle and not as strong as raw or golden sugar and the fine texture looks very pretty sprinkled on top. The Liddells spread worked really well- it didn't melt too early or while baking, and the moisture content was just right. Some margarine type spreads have a lot of water and it can make baking a bit tricky

All in all, a perfect little compliment for my afternoon Earl Grey!

So Dear Readers, what little morsels do you like to munch on with a cup of tea, and have you ever tried Maple Sugar?