Candy Cane Chocolate Shortbread

Can you believe Christmas is almost one week away? I certainly cannot, but I'm here today to share a Christmas recipe with you! There are many reasons to get excited during the month of December, and baking tops my list. Every year I plan out certain recipes that I want to try - some are the same, traditional recipes every year (shortbread, gingerbread, sugar cookies), and some are new recipes I'd like to test. The first holiday recipe I made this year was shortbread! I used a Pioneer Woman recipe, but I made these cookies extra festive by dipping them in melted chocolate and sprinkling them with crushed candy canes, inspired from a Cupcakes and Cashmere recipe. 

ingredients: softened butter + sugar + vanilla bean sugar + flour + corn starch 

Here comes the fun part! I melted the chocolate in 30 second intervals in the microwave to prevent the semi-sweet chocolate chips from seizing.  Once the cookies cooled, I spread the chocolate on one side. Then, the cookies were laid flat on parchment paper and sprinkled with candy cane crumbs and dust.

Shortbread is great for those who are not HUGE sugar fans. They're a pretty plain type of cookie, but if a lot of butter is used, they taste rich and melt-in-your-mouth goooood. 

Sources: Inspiration from here/Original recipe here

Q: What are your favorite holiday treats? I'm a huge fan of shortbread and caramel chocolate!

[Please forgive the poor quality of my photo's in this post. I tried out a new editor that I don't like, and the photographs were taken during the night time. Natural lighting is always the best to work with]