There are many varieties and flavors of shortbread cookies to grace the table during the holiday season. This is our melt in your mouth, family favorite recipe, handed down from my paternal grandmother Yvette.

Preheat oven to 325.

Ingredients:

1 c butter, soft, room temperature

½ c icing sugar, sifted

1¾ c flour

In bowl, whip butter with electric mixer until light and creamy. (or you can do this by hand)  Add icing sugar to butter and mix well.  Add flour and mix until combined.  Divide into manageable portions and roll lightly with rolling pin to desired thickness. (1/4” thick)  Use cookie cutter of desired shape and transfer to an ungreased (parchment lined is ok) cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned on bottom.  Remove from cookie sheets and cool on wire racks.  Frost with butter frosting.  You may garnish with a snippet of a maraschino cherry for colour, if desired.  Enjoy!

PS If you have any family favorite recipes you would like to share, please get in touch at lionsbay.net

After a career of working in finance, the years of working long and stressful hours left me feeling unfulfilled and wanting more from life than just a work & life balance. I’d long been a keen baker, even completing an externship as a patissier. The 2009 economic recession proved to be fortuitous for me: I discovered the art of chocolate-making, and soon realized what I wanted to be “when I grow up”…at the tender age of 50 years.

Enrolling in Vancouver-based Ecole Chocolat’s professional chocolatier program set me on a new path, spawning a new career direction as a chocolatier and eventually launching Gem Chocolates in 2009.