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These Maple Twist Cookies are soft, buttery, and packed with a generous walnut-maple filling, then finished with a simple vanilla glaze. They look special on a holiday cookie plate but are made with straightforward ingredients and a simple roll, fill, fold, slice, and twist method. You’re going to love the sweet crunch in every bite.
Why You’ll Love It
- Sweet walnut-maple filling — generous, crunchy, and full of cozy flavor
- Soft raisin dough — buttery and tender with chewy little surprises
- Pretty twisted shape — makes every cookie look special on a dessert tray
- Great for baking ahead — the glazed cookies hold up nicely and freeze well
Ingredient Notes
The filling calls for five cups of walnuts chopped in a blender. Yes, five cups. It sounds like a mountain, and it sort of is, but that filling is the heart of these cookies. Use walnuts that taste fresh; stale walnuts have that sad, dusty flavor that can ruin a perfectly good recipe.
Maple flavoring is different from maple syrup, so don’t swap syrup into the filling. It changes the texture and adds moisture where you don’t want it. If you truly cannot find maple flavoring, vanilla works in the filling, as it does here. The cookies will still be lovely, just a little less maple-forward.
For the dough, use regular all-purpose flour and room-temperature butter. Not melted butter. Room temperature means soft enough to beat, not shiny and halfway to soup.
The raisins are part of the dough, and I know raisins can inspire strong feelings. Keep them. They add a chewy little surprise and belong here. I’m not saying every old recipe is sacred—some are frankly a mess—but this one has earned its raisins.
Ingredients
- 5 cups walnuts, chopped in a blender — chop them fairly fine, but don’t turn them into walnut butter
- 1 stick butter, room temperature — for the filling
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring — vanilla can stand in if maple flavoring is nowhere to be found
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup butter, room temperature — this is for the dough
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 1/2 cups raisins
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Mix together the chopped walnuts, 1 stick of room-temperature butter, brown sugar, and maple flavoring for the filling. Set it aside. It will seem like an awful lot of filling, because it is. That’s not a problem; that’s dinner-table diplomacy.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Give it a quick stir so you don’t wind up with one bite that tastes like straight baking powder.
In a mixer, beat the 2/3 cup butter and granulated sugar together. Add the beaten eggs and raisins. The dough at this point may look a little odd and lumpy. Don’t panic. It comes together.
Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, mixing as you go. Start with some flour, then some milk, and continue until both are incorporated. You’ll have a soft dough—not the sort of dough you can fling around dramatically like they do on cooking shows.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape it into a ball. Cut the ball into four equal pieces. Try to get them reasonably even, though there’s no need to bring a ruler into this. We’re making cookies, not building a deck.
Take one piece of dough and roll it into a 12-inch log on the floured surface. Then, using a rolling pin, very gently roll that log into a rectangle about 5 inches by 12 inches. Gentle is the important word. If you mash it too hard, the dough can get cranky and stick. Add a bit more flour underneath if needed.
Place one-fourth of the filling along the bottom edge of the dough rectangle. Keep it close to that lower edge, rather than scattering it all over. It is tempting to pile it on with abandon. Resist.
Fold the top edge of the dough down over the filling. Pinch the seams closed, then flatten the rectangle a little with your hands. You’re making a tidy little package, more or less. They are never quite tidy, and that’s fine.
Cut the rectangle vertically into 1-inch pieces. You should get about 12 pieces from that section.
Pick up each piece and twist it twice away from your body. This detail sounds fussy, but it makes the pretty twist. The first few may look like something you found in the vacuum cleaner. Keep going. They improve.
Place the twisted cookies on a cookie sheet and press the ends down onto the sheet so they stay put during baking. Use ungreased cookie sheets. If your pans tend to stick, use whatever sensible method you normally use—but don’t change the dough or filling situation.
Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. These cookies do not brown much, so don’t wait for a golden color that isn’t coming. Take them out after 20 minutes and transfer them to a cooling rack. Repeat the rolling, filling, twisting, and baking with the remaining three pieces of dough.
Once the cookies are cool, stir together the powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and vanilla extract for the icing. Brush it over the cookies. A pastry brush is handy, though the back of a spoon works in a pinch.
Let the icing settle a bit, then make tea or coffee and enjoy a couple. Dunking is encouraged. I won’t say required, but it should be.
Variations
The only variation I really endorse here is using vanilla in place of maple flavoring in the filling if maple flavoring is hard to find. The cookies are still delicious, just a touch different—warmer, maybe less distinctly maple. If you want a little more maple character, you can add a drop or two of maple extract to the glaze, but be stingy with it. Maple extract is powerful stuff. One tiny bit is charming; too much tastes like a candle aisle at a country store.
Cinnamon can be added to the filling, but this filling does not need it. The walnuts, brown sugar, and maple flavoring have their own quiet little thing going.
Making the twists smaller can cause uneven baking. Stick with the 1-inch cuts. Sometimes the old way is the old way for a reason.
Storage & Reheating
Store the glazed cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They’ll keep nicely for several days. If you stack them, put wax paper or parchment between layers so the icing doesn’t get smeared into one big sugary situation.
They can also be frozen. Let the icing set completely, layer the cookies with wax paper in a freezer-safe container, and freeze them. Let them thaw at room temperature when you’re ready. Don’t reheat these; they aren’t that kind of cookie. A cold Maple Twist with coffee is actually quite nice.
Final Notes
These cookies take a little time, and I won’t pretend otherwise. There are easier things to bake when the week is busy and the house is loud and you’ve already made three trips to the store because wrapping tape was forgotten. But there’s something about sitting down to twist those little pieces of dough that slows the whole day down—not in a magical way, exactly. The laundry is still there. Your inbox is still being ridiculous. Life continues to life.
Still.
The smell of walnuts and butter in the oven gets me every time. Old dish towels and chipped mixing bowls feel right at home with these twists.
Either way, make a cup of tea. Take two cookies. Sit down before the good chair is gone.
Maple Twist Cookies
Ingredients Â
- 5 cups walnuts chopped in a blender fairly fine, but not into walnut butter
- 1 stick butter room temperature, for the filling
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring vanilla can stand in if maple flavoring is unavailable
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup butter room temperature, for the dough
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1 1/2 cups raisins
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
InstructionsÂ
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, then mix the chopped walnuts, 1 stick room-temperature butter, brown sugar, and maple flavoring together for the filling and set it aside.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, stirring briefly so the dry ingredients are evenly distributed.
- In a mixer, beat the 2/3 cup room-temperature butter with the granulated sugar, then add the beaten eggs and raisins.
- Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, mixing as you go, until both are incorporated and a soft dough forms.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, shape it into a ball, and cut the ball into four equal pieces.
- Take one piece of dough, roll it into a 12-inch log on the floured surface, then gently roll the log into a rectangle about 5 inches by 12 inches, adding a little flour underneath if needed.
- Place one-fourth of the walnut-maple filling along the bottom edge of the dough rectangle, keeping it close to that lower edge.
- Fold the top edge of the dough down over the filling, pinch the seams closed, and flatten the rectangle slightly with your hands.
- Cut the filled rectangle vertically into 1-inch pieces; you should get about 12 pieces from that section.
- Pick up each piece and twist it twice away from your body, then place the twisted cookies on ungreased cookie sheets and press the ends down so they stay put during baking.
- Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes, noting that the cookies do not brown much, then transfer them to a cooling rack and repeat the rolling, filling, twisting, and baking with the remaining three pieces of dough.
- Once the cookies are cool, stir together the powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and vanilla extract, then brush the glaze over the cookies and let the icing settle before serving.