Yoga and Cookies

Who says they don't go together? On thursday, I had some of friends/yoga students come over for some tea, cookies, and other assorted baked goods. We had a lovely chat about yoga, Cairo and travel, among other things. It was a wonderful morning spent on the semi renovated balcony. And after everyone had a belly full of sugar we decided to try some yoga tricks. Always a good idea...

I made some maple leaf cookies for the gathering. Still inspired by Fall, even though it was at least 90 degrees out on the balcony that morning.

They went a little some thing like this...

Maple Leaf Cookies with Maple Nutmeg Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  
• Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Directions

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape(like a maple leaf!), place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack.

After cookies have cooled, blend 1/2 cup of very soft butter with 2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar and about 1/4 cup of maple syrup. Stir in 2 to 4 tablespoons milk until icing spreads smoothly. After frosting the cookies, I sprinkled a combination of sugar and nutmeg over each cookie.