These maple sugar biscuits start with a flaky biscuit dough, rolled up with a maple sugar and butter filling. As they bake, the sugar and butter caramelizes in to such sweet goodness!
I love using maple sugar in and on things and one of my favourite sweet treats are these maple sugar biscuits. These are delicious buttery biscuits, that are rolled up with maple sugar and butter and baked up to flaky perfection.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Maple Sugar – maple sugar is quite easy to find in my part of the world, but I realize it’s not the case everywhere. If you can’t find maple sugar, or it’s too expensive where you live, you can make a simple substitute by combining 1 cup regular sugar with 1 1/4 tsp maple extract. You could also use light brown sugar or demerara sugar.
Recipe Tips
- I purchased my maple sugar at Bulk Barn here in Canada, so for Canadians, look for it there. The Bulk Barn version is actually maple flakes, which you’ll want to quickly run through a food processor to make it more fine. A word of warning though … it’s not the cheapest of ingredients. You’ll need about $5.00 worth of maple flakes for this recipe. But trust me when I say … it will be worth every penny :) For others, maple sugar is available to purchase online quite easily.
- Don’t skip the baking sheet under your muffin tin. These will bubble up and over a bit and make a mess of the bottom of your oven if you don’t have something under it. Even at that, you may wish to run your oven fan, as any bubble overs are quite sugary, so may burn and smoke a bit.
- These are best eaten on the day they are baked, but they do freeze well, so don’t hesitate to freeze any you can’t eat up right away. Store in an airtight container, once cooled. You can re-heat them to enjoy them warm again, by placing them on a baking sheet and re-heating in a 350F. oven just until warm.
Making Ahead, Storing and Freezing
Like most biscuits, these are best enjoyed freshly baked, though they will keep stored in an airtight container for a couple of days. These biscuits should also freeze well.
Get the Recipe: Maple Sugar Biscuits
Ingredients
Biscuits:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoons granulated maple sugar, *see Notes for substitution
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, reduce to 1/4 tsp is using salted butter
- 5 Tablespoons butter, salted or unsalted, cold, cut into small pieces
- 3/4 cup whole milk, or 2% milk, in a pinch
Filling:
- 6 Tablespoon butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated maple sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. (regular bake setting/not fan assisted) with rack in centre of oven. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups and set on to a baking sheet. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, maple sugar, baking powder and salt. Blennd in butter with a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea-sized pieces of butter. Add milk and stir with a fork until a shaggy dough forms. Gently knead dough 8 to 10 times with floured hands on a lightly floured surface.
- Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 13 x 11-inch rectangle. Spread softened butter evenly over the dough and then sprinkle all over with maple sugar, pressing firmly on the sugar with your palm to help it stick to the butter.
- Beginning with one long side, roll up the dough tightly, jelly-roll style. Trim both ends slightly, to remove any uneven part of the roll, then cut the roll into 10-12 slices with a sharp knife (about 1-inch wide). Place slices cut side down in prepared muffin cups. Gather any maple sugar from your work surface and sprinkle on top of rolls. Fill any empty muffin cups 1/2 full with water, to ensure even cooking.
- Bake in preheated oven with muffin tins on top of a baking sheet to catch any bubble overs, until rolls are puffed and golden, about 18 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the muffin tin for 10-15 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool further.
Notes
More Maple Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
I made them today and they are amazing, I added some walnuts ada used some maple butter mixed in with the regular butter for the filling and iced them with maple butter too.
Sounds lovely, Barbara :) So glad you enjoyed them. Thanks!
Hi, Rogers sugar now markets “Lantic” Maple Sugar in 220g bags & Maple Flakes in 170g bags. Picked up both at Save-On Foods. Expect I’d see them at other grocers like Safeway, Superstore, etc since Rogers is sold everywhere.
Looking forward to trying recipe this weekend! 😋
Yes! I have picked this up myself. Thanks for reminding me. I will update this post with that information :)
This ragamuffin recipe is very similar to the Acadian/Quebec Pets des Soeurs ( Nun’s Farts).
I learned how to make them from my mother in law who used leftover dough when she made a pie.
They are as anticipated as the pie itself.
Interesting! And a great use for left-over pie dough, so nothing is wasted :)
I had never heard of these, but was looking for a recipe to specifically use the maple sugar in my cupboard. (I agree I thought a Ragamuffin was a dog!) These are tasty. We made them last night and really wanted to devour all of them as soon as they were cool enough to eat, but we saved some for today. My husband suggested they just might be topped off with a vanilla drizzle…hmmm. I placed them in the cup cake pans as recipe notes, placed on a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper which caught the drips, so no burning. When I run out of maple sugar, will definitely make with sugar and cinnamon. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
So glad you enjoyed them, Tina! I have made them with cinnamon sugar and a bit of cream cheese frosting on top and they are delicious, too :) Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, since we are now in physical distancing mode , a run to bulk barn isn’t an option. Can I make a version of maple sugar using maple syrup and sugar? Can you suggest a quantity of each? Thanks.
Hi Regina, I don’t think so. You would have to add so much maple syrup to the sugar that it would be, well … liquid. You can definitely add maple extract to sugar, if you have that. You can also make maple sugar from maple syrup (not for the faint of heart, as it involves boiling it to quite hot etc. If you google “how to make maple sugar”, you can find the instructions. Failing that, I might just skip the maple part and just make these as a sugar/cinnamon biscuit roll (either white or brown sugar). Hope that helps a bit.
I live in Nanaimo B.C. and our Bulk Barn is open. You can place an order that they will fill for you to pick up or shop in the store. Once you know what you want a staff member will scoop it for you .
I hope this helps!
Could these be made a day before and baked just before ready tomeat? A
Hi Jackie, I’ve never tried to make these ahead and refrigerate. As this is a biscuit dough though, I have frozen un-baked biscuits and baked them off from frozen with success.
So beautiful ! Never heard of ragamuffins before so these are a beautiful start of a long lasting ragamuffins friendship :-) Thank you so much !
Thanks! I have made these rolled biscuits in all kinds of flavours. They are a fun treat for anytime :)
These sound absolutely lovely. I can just see myself enjoying one (!!?) of these with a coffee. I know I can’t find maple sugar here but I can make something up that will suffice. AND I’m not going to lose any of that lovely syrup out of the cups – I will cook them in tall paper cups which I hope will capture all that loveliness. Mother’s Day will be with us in another weeks time and these seem like something I would like to make for myself for said day. Yum Yum!! Will I share? Maybe.
Sounds perfect! These are so delicious. They are a perfect treat for Mother’s Day!
I would LOVE to make these for my treat day at work! Do they hold up well over night? Or has anyone actually ever had any last that long?
Hi Rhonda, I have had some “next day” and they are fine. The biscuit part dries a tiny bit, but still enjoyable. I kept them in an airtight container.
Not only are you rewarded with a delicious treat but the aromas in the kitchen while these are baking must be great.
They definitely are, Karen! Thanks :)
What dreamy little biscuits! I know I’d have a hard time not devouring the entire batch! :)
Thanks so much, Laura :)
Made these this morning. They were delicious! One note on the maple sugar flakes – out west $5.00 only gets you about 1/2 cup. :(
I used that amount and when they came out of the oven I drizzled a little bit of maple syrup on each bun to make up for lack. Thank you for the tasty breakfast treat Jennifer.
So glad you enjoyed these Maria! Sorry the maple flakes were so expensive out west! There is probably a more economical source of maple sugar online, if that’s the case. I’ll hunt for one and add to this post, if I find one :)
Oh Wow Jennifer! These look absolutely incredible and as luck would have it I happen to have some maple sugar in my pantry. . .just waiting for something like this. But. . . my taste buds will have to wait because if anything even lets off the tiniest of smoke, my fire alarm will start blaring (yes. . .I learned the hard way). And since I live in an apartment building. . .visits from the fire department are a big no no. I’m moving into my own place in a few months (our new place is under construction). . .and will have proper ventilation. Yeah!!!
I hear you Lynn. I have the worlds most sensitive smoke detector ever and while the fire department doesn’t come when mine goes off, it’s super annoying. So I always warn people when a dish sets mine off ;) Do enjoy your new home and these buns!
The name alone makes me want to make these ~ I just got my first maple sugar about a year ago and now I try to find every way possible to use it ~ these look like they have an incredible texture!
Thanks Sue and they really do! Super flaky and tender and of course, maple!
I swear I commented on this post, Jennifer… but maybe I just thought I did because I spent, like, a solid 30 minutes staring at these on FB and Instagram. And all the drooling just got to my head? ;) Anyways, these are absolutely EVERYTHING! So flaky and buttery! I could eat a dangerous amount of these ragamuffins! I love that you tweaked this recipe and made them in muffin tins! GENIUS! I can’t wait to try these, girlfriend! Cheers!
Thanks so much, Cheyanne :) I could eat my weight in these. They were super yummy!
We are just swooning over your little ragamuffins! Tender, flaky and oh my goodness so delicious. Sharing everywhere of course!
Thanks so much :)
The name ragamuffins is the cutest thing but a rolled up biscuit situation? Absolutely and positively yes! Although I wish I could grab some of that good ol’ maple Canadian syrup. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Cindy and wish I could share some with you. Definitely no shortage here ;)
Oh my Lord, these look amazing Jennifer! I just started a little diet, so these will be my cheat as soon as I think I deserve one!
Thanks Mary Ann and definitely not diet food, but a great cheat ;)
These look and sound absolutely delicious however, I am one of the few who do not enjoy maple flavor. Could I use brown sugar instead of maple sugar?
Hi Marilyn, I suppose you could, although I’m thinking a turbinado sugar might be closer in texture to the maple sugar.
Hi Jennifer,
My Muskoka Chelsea buns really bubble up as well. And when I turn them out, it’s almost a Carmel-like sauce. Like you I’ve experimented with rolling them loose, then right, close in pan, space in pan, less butter, more butter. Is the bubble over the expected norm? Thanks Jennifer.
Hi Mary-Lou! No, I’ve never had that problem with the chelsea buns. What size loaf pan are you using?
I could get into testing a few batches of these gorgeous muffins! I LOVE the name, the creativity and I am now on a quest to find the maple sugar. The aroma of these baking but be pure heaven :) Hope you enjoyed your long holiday weekend and a beautiful Easter too!
The testing was the best part ;) These are super delicious biscuits. Well worth seeking out the maple sugar!