It's still about 90 degrees in Davis, and feels a lot more like summer than fall. Sadly, much though I would love to pretend it's still summer vacation, it isn't. I have reading to do and papers to write, and pretending I don't won't make them go away. The cool thing for me right now is that I'm actually learning how to say things in Italian, like "non mi piacciono gli asparagi" (I don't like asparagus).
   
    Since I can't change the fact that I have classes and homework now, I'm trying to get in the spirit of fall however I can. I've been scoping out a pomegranate tree in my neighborhood for a few weeks now, waiting until the fruit is ripe so I can snag some. Until then, I have these cute little maple cookies to keep me happy. My thinking when I made them was basically that I wanted to make maple shortbread. Then I had the idea to make maple frosting and sandwich the cookies together. It was a good decision.

Ingredients:
*makes about 12 sandwich cookies

1/2 cup softened butter
2 tbsp good quality maple syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour

Cream together the butter, maple syrup, and sugar. Mix in the flour until the dough is smooth with no white streaks. Chill the dough for 20 minutes before baking.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Roll teaspoons of dough into balls, flatten them slightly and space them about 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 8 minutes, until cookies are slightly golden at the edges. Fill with maple frosting.

Maple Frosting:
3 tbsp softened butter
1+1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp milk

Cream together butter and sugar. Incorporate the maple syrup and milk. If frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more milk.