Simple Maple Morsels: Maple Shortbread Bars & Rosemary Walnut Scones with Maple Glaze

Maple isn’t just for pancakes! Explore a world of flavor with this delightful duo of maple-infused recipes. 

The maple shortbread is similar to traditional Scottish shortbread. It features rich, creamy butter and melt-in-your-mouth goodness, all enhanced by a bold maple flavor. Plus, it’s incredibly easy to make!

The rosemary walnut scones are slightly sweet, moist, tender, and absolutely delicious. They’re topped with a maple-buttermilk glaze for extra flavor. Pro tip: make sure to use pure maple syrup for the best results!

The following is an excerpt from The Hungry Ghost Bread Book by Jonathan Stevens. It has been adapted for the web.

Maple Shortbread

Maple sugar is, of course, the sweetener that we’re blessed with here in the Northeast, another gift that First Nations communities shared with European settlers. Growing up in Quebec, it was impossible to avoid the seasonal significance of what we called sugaring-off in late winter and early spring.

My best memories of those times are of warm maple taffy hardening on clean picnic-table snow. A deftly twirled twig would roll the congealing magic into a forest lollipop. Hardwood groves, sap buckets hung, snowshoe tracks, and steam pouring out of the sugar shack: that’s what maple syrup means to me.

Shortbread is of Scottish origin, linked in popular imagination to Mary, Queen of Scots and her alliance (culinarily, militarily, and linguistically) to the French. As it so happens, the forest preserve that I was taken to as a child is on the campus of Macdonald College, in the town of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, across the river from the Mohawk village of Kanesatake. Maple Shortbread, indeed.

Ingredients

Makes 16 shortbread slices

• Butter, softened 340 g (3 sticks)
• Maple sugar 200 g
• All-purpose flour 450 g
• Salt 1 teaspoon (6 g)
• 1 large egg, whisked
• Sea salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (176.5°C).
• On a clean work surface, paste together the butter and maple sugar by sprinkling the sugar over the spread-out, softened butter and folding the mass over on itself repeatedly.
• Add the flour and salt and repeat the slow incorporation.
• Roll into logs about 2-1/2 inches across and 10 to 12 inches long.
• Slice each log into 16 slices and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• Brush with the whisked egg, crosshatch with a fork, and sprinkle with sea salt.
• Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, until deep golden brown.

Rosemary Walnut Scones with Maple-buttermilk glaze

Ingredients

Makes 8 large (51/2 oz) scones

• All-purpose flour, chilled 310 g
• Pastry flour, chilled 200 g
• Sugar 1/4 cup (50 g)
• Baking powder 1 tablespoon (12 g)
• Baking soda 1 teaspoon (6 g)
• Salt 1 teaspoon (6 g)
• Butter, chilled, then cubed or sliced 227 g (2 sticks)
• Dried rosemary 4 teaspoons (5 g)
• Walnuts 1 cup (117 g)
• Buttermilk 1 cup (242 g)
• Heavy cream 1 tablespoon (14 g)
• Maple-buttermilk glaze: 1 tablespoon buttermilk (14 g) whisked with 1/4 cup (78 g) maple syrup

On the wall of our bakery’s pastry department are these notes for scones and biscuits:

• Keep ALL the ingredients as cold as possible. (Don’t freeze butter though; it doesn’t break down as nicely).
• Do not overmix, and this includes the butter. There should be visible chunks of butter in the final dough. How long the mixing takes will vary according to butter cube size and weather. Adjust accordingly.
• Add liquid slowly, and stop mixing once the dough comes together. You may need to mix in a little by hand, or distribute wetter pieces with drier pieces. Do this by hand, not in the mixer.
• Handle the dough as little as possible. It’s okay to reroll, but do not wad the dough; stack pieces on top of one another.
• Work quickly so the dough isn’t sitting out too long. We want the chemical reaction to happen in the oven, not while the dough is sitting on the counter. Brush off excess flour.
• Bake until golden. Do not underbake; pale pastries are sad.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190.5°C).

Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and set aside in the freezer for at least 10 minutes (or up to 2 years). Transfer the dry ingredients to a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, and beat at medium-high speed (gear 5 or 6) until the butter begins to break down into smaller pieces. Now, add the rosemary and walnuts.

Combine the buttermilk and cream. Slowly add the buttermilk mixture at moderate speed until it begins to come together. Once combined, turn out onto a floured surface and make 2 to 4 folds by cutting the dough in half, then stacking one half on top of the other and pressing down. Roll out the stack to an 8-inch square. Trim the edges straight with a dough knife. Cut down the center and crosswise to create four 4-inch squares, then cut diagonally across each square to create eight triangles. Place the scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Brush each scone with the maple-buttermilk glaze (whisked together for a loose, but not watery consistency) and bake for about 14 minutes, or until they look golden-brown delicious: crispy on the edges with a center that has give but is not mushy. Allow to cool for 2 minutes, then brush with the glaze again.

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