I like making shortbread during the winter season. It has a longer baking time than most cookies, so it’s perfect to make when the weather is cooler. It’s also very easy to make, which is another plus! This recipe for Chocolate Chip Shortbread Squares just has 5 simple ingredients and you don’t even have to grease the pan! And they’re baked in a 10 x 15″ baking pan, which means you get a lot of yummy shortbread for very little effort. 🙂

I adapted this recipe from Taste of Home and added some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. And I discovered it’s great with chocolate chips! As my friend Ann said, you can never go wrong adding chocolate chips to a recipe! 🙂 Be sure to use the mini semi-sweet chips—the regular-sized ones will be too big for these thinner cookies. You can cut the cookies into larger squares or smaller narrow bars—I’ve done both. The cookies are very rich, buttery, and chocolatey, so you may prefer cutting them smaller. They’re great with tea, coffee, or hot cocoa!

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CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD SQUARES by NancyC, adapted from Taste of Home

Makes a 10 x 15″ pan of shortbread

• 2 cups (4 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, preferably sifted (sifting the sugar gives the cookie a really smooth texture; I didn’t sift mine, so I had some tiny bumps, but they’re hardly noticeable)
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325˚F. In large bowl, cream softened butter and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy; set aside.

In another bowl, combine flour and cornstarch; gradually add this mixture to the creamed butter/sugar mixture, blending well. Add the mini chocolate chips to the batter, mixing until the chips are evenly distributed in batter.

Pat cookie dough evenly into an ungreased 10 x 15″ small-rimmed baking pan (also called a jelly roll pan). Pierce the surface of the dough with a fork, several inches apart. Bake at 325˚F  for 40 to 45 minutes or until lightly browned (I baked mine for 41 minutes). Let cool about 10 minutes, then cut into bars or squares while still warm (don’t let these cool completely before cutting; they will be harder to cut). If you cut these into smaller bars, you can get as many as 6 dozen.

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Shortbread is one of my favorite kinds of cookies! What’s your favorite?

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