Good morning! If you’re a maple walnut ice cream fan, you need these cookies in your life. These maple walnut sandwich cookies earned me the title “sandwich cookie queen” among my grad school girlfriends this weekend. If you’re thinking, “That’s random…”, check out my carrot cake sandwich cookies and you’ll understand why.
I whipped these up for our friend Kort’s birthday which we celebrated during last weekend’s mini-reunion. I made just a few tweaks to the original sandwich cookie recipe to get the maple walnut flavor that I love so much.
Don’t worry. They’re still made with love and yogurt. A little plain low-fat yogurt in the cookie batter and 0% Greek yogurt in the frosting replaces quite a bit of butter, without sacrificing flavor. I throw in the love as an added bonus.
Just make sure you have maple extract on hand for the frosting. You’ll regret it if you don’t.
The oats serve 2 purposes:
- It’s a tasty way to add little extra whole grain in our diet.
- I consider oats a breakfast food… I bet you can guess where I’m going with this.
Here’s the recipe! I’ll list this right under the carrot cake sandwich cookies on my recipe page for you to find in the future. Bon appétit!
maple walnut sandwich cookies
Makes ~24 sandwich cookies
Cookies
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- 1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 3/4 cups dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons plain low-fat yogurt
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8oz cream cheese (1 package)
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure maple extract
Note: Cookies are best served chilled for a minimum of 2 hours, overnight is ideal.
Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla and yogurt. Add the egg and beat until just combined. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir about half of the dry ingredients into the wet until well incorporated and repeat until all of the flour mixture is combined. Mix in the oats and walnuts. Lightly grease a cookie sheet or line the pan with parchment paper since these cookies come out somewhat delicate due to the reduced fat content. Transfer tablespoons of cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheet and bake for 11-12 minutes, rotating baking sheet half way through. Bake until edges are a light golden brown. Place cookies on a drying rack and allow to cool completely.While the cookies are baking, sift the confectioners sugar into a large bowl. Add the cream cheese, Greek yogurt and maple extract and mix until smooth. Once cookies have cooled, smear some of the frosting onto one of the cookies and press another on top to make a sandwich. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours for the best taste & texture.
P.S. If you enjoyed this, you can check out previous midweek eat recipes here.
omg, these cookies look fantastic… I was looking for something to bake this weekend and I think I have just found it. Can’t wait to try them!!!
I can attest that these are truly in my cookie hall of fame already. No votes needed – unanimous!
I can’t even express to you how amazing that frosting looks. what a good friend you are! :)
I want more!!!!