Hello all! Sorry it’s been such a very long time…I’ve been travelling round Far East Asia for a month with my boyfriend (which you will definitely have gathered if you follow me on Twitter @pipnlittleblue or Instagram @pipnlittlebluefood where I comprehensively documented my culinary adventures!) and on top of that the boring day job has been getting in the way. Day jobs, eh – why can’t we all just get on with our hobbies and make merry?!

To ease myself back in to all things blog-related, I’m revisiting the first ever recipe I posted on pip & little blue! What feels like an age ago, back in February 2013, I developed a maple syrup-flavoured cookie recipe and baked a batch in the shape of lovely little hearts in honour of Valentine’s Day. In case you’re wondering, my boyfriend was snowboarding in Canada at the time (hence the maple syrup) so I did in fact eat them ALL myself… Apart from the warm maple syrupy deliciousness, the most exciting thing about them was how little the dough spread whilst baking (yes, I’m a very sad person). Which got me thinking…

So I baked these little beauties for an extra-special hen-do yesterday and personalised them with an awesome customisable cookie stamp from Suck UK. You can spell out anything you like (as long as it contains 2 or less of the same letter…) which will no doubt afford me endless hours of creative fun… And the dough spread so little that the writing stamped on them stayed perfectly crisp and clear – yay!

Made with oodles of love, this is my go-to no-spread cookie dough – try it out, have fun with shapes and patterns, and let me know how intricate you dared to go!

Foolproof no-spread cookies

Makes about 40 cookies

Ingredients:

– 100g dark brown soft sugar
– 125g unsalted butter at room temperature (and extra for greasing)
– 1 large egg (free-range please), lightly beaten
– 85ml maple syrup (the darker the better)
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 375g plain flour (and extra for work surface)
– 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl until fluffy. I used a food processor but a wooden spoon and some elbow grease would work just as well!

Beat in the egg, ensuring it is fully incorporated (scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula if you’re using a food processor). Then add the maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt and fold into the wet mixture, half at a time.

Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. Tip: I made my first batch after only half an hour of chilling (I couldn’t wait to try them) and then left the rest of the dough to chill overnight – cutting the cookies out in the morning from the properly chilled dough was so much easier and required a lot less flour. This is a very soft dough so try not to be impatient like me!

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Roll out the dough onto a floured surface and cut into shapes, 3-4mm thick.

Place on a greased baking tray (you needn’t leave much space between them as this dough doesn’t spread very much) and bake for 9-10 minutes. The baking time will depend in part on your oven, how big your cookies are and how squidgy you like them. I wanted mine nice and chewy so I took them out after 9 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container…Or enjoy straight from the oven with a cup of tea!

Source: Recipe and photos by pip & little blue.