Butter Cookies — The First Sweet of Sugaring Season

March. The first of March is not spring — in Vermont the first of March is still winter wearing a different label — but the label matters. March means the maple sap is two weeks away. March means the woodpile is still adequate but the count is narrowing. March means the sun is higher at noon and the light through the kitchen window hits the table at a different angle, and in the morning when I sit with my coffee the sun comes through in a way that is almost warm, almost enough.

I spent Saturday in the sugarhouse doing the pre-season preparations I do every year: check the taps, check the buckets, check the lines on the evaporator. The sugarhouse in early March is cold and smells of last year's syrup, a smell so dense and particular that it exists nowhere else in the world. My grandfather built this sugarhouse in 1921 and boiled his first sap that same spring. His son — my father — helped him starting at age six. I helped my father starting at age seven. David helped me starting at age eight. Teddy helped David and me last year at age eight. Something about eight-year-olds and maple sap in this family. I do not know what it is.

Helen made the first maple candy of the spring season this weekend — not for gifts, just for us, because it is March and maple candy in March is the right thing to make. The candy tastes different in March than it did in December, because in March the syrup I use is from last spring's batch, and it has been sitting in the jars in the cellar since April and it has matured in a way that fresh syrup hasn't yet. Aged maple syrup. Some things improve with time.

I have been looking at the trees. The mornings are still below freezing. The afternoons are above thirty-two. This is the condition: freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw, the pressure differential that pulls the sap up from the roots and out the taps and down into the buckets. The trees are doing their work. I am preparing mine. We have been doing this together, these trees and my family, for six generations. Seven if you count Teddy.

Helen’s maple candy was already spoken for — every last piece — before the weekend was out, and I can’t say I was surprised. But what she also made, quietly, while I was out checking lines in the sugarhouse, were these butter cookies: plain, golden, and exactly right for an early March afternoon when the cellar syrup is spoken for and you need something sweet that asks nothing of the season except that it be cold enough outside to make the oven feel like a blessing. These are her go-to when the waiting is the whole point.

Butter Cookies

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 27 min | Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 tablespoons coarse sugar or sparkling sugar, for topping (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add the egg and vanilla. Add the egg and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and beat on medium until fully incorporated, about 1 minute.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients. Add the flour and salt all at once. Mix on low speed just until the dough comes together and no streaks of flour remain. Do not overmix.
5. Shape the cookies. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place them about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Use the bottom of a glass or your palm to flatten each ball slightly to about 1/4-inch thickness. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if using.
6. Bake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are just barely golden and the centers look set but still pale. Rotate the pans halfway through for even baking.
7. Cool. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. They will firm up as they cool.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 95 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 11g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 18mg