My Scottish born Aunt Catherine was an expert baker of Shortbread. I have her recipe, and it doesn’t include maple syrup. But I wonder . . . after settling in Florida, and receiving our gifts of maple syrup for their oatmeal, did she perhaps add “just a wee bit” to her shortbread batter? There’s a lot of goodness in Maple Shortbread, and there are a lot of calories too – so enjoy these treats, then head for the sugarwoods and work off your Maple Morsels! Happy Valentine’s Day – and wishing you all a Sweet, Flavorsome Sugaring Season!

WHAT YOU NEED

A baking sheet or decorative pan. The wrought iron one in the photo was a “flea market find”, but a heart shaped muffin pan would have done nicely. The original maple shortbread recipe suggested rolling the dough into walnut size balls, and flattening them slightly to accept your choice of garnish, so I tried that too. For garnishes I used commercial red colored sugar, raspberry jam, maraschino cherry halves, and then – EUREKA! The most true to maple was our lightest maple granules colored with red food color!

1 cup of lightly salted butter

½ cup of REAL maple syrup, Amber Rich or Dark Robust

2 cups of all-purpose flour (We use King Arthur)

¼ teaspoon salt

Your choice of garnishes

HOW TO DO IT

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 175 degrees Centigrade

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, combine all the ingredients just until they are thoroughly mixed.

Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned around the edges. (The timing is a bit tricky because of pan type. My wrought iron heart pan took nearly 20 minutes, whereas the cookie sheet “walnut size balls” took only 10 to 12 minutes.) Be prepared to check the progress of your maple shortbread, you don’t want to waste those premium ingredients!