These cook­ies will liv­en up any hol­i­day din­ner par­ty this sea­son. Your favourite jam gloss­i­ly peeks from be­hind a but­tery, sweet short­bread cook­ie that’s per­fect with a cup of tea or glass of milk. It may look like a tree or­na­ment but, trust us, it’s as easy as can be. Make the dough ahead and freeze for a quick and snap­py, Christ­mas treat!

IN­GRE­DI­ENTS

8 ounces un­salt­ed soft­ened but­ter

¾ cup ic­ing sug­ar

½ tea­spoon vanil­la essence

¼ tea­spoon salt

2 cups flour

½ cup sor­rel or fruit jel­ly

Ic­ing sug­ar for dust­ing

DI­REC­TIONS

1 Line a bak­ing sheet with parch­ment pa­per.

2 Cream but­ter and ic­ing sug­ar to­geth­er.

3 Add vanil­la and salt and beat un­til com­bined.

4 Stir in flour un­til mix­ture is ho­mo­ge­neous.

5 Be­tween two sheets of wax pa­per, roll out dough to ¼-inch thick­ness. Us­ing a cook­ie cut­ter, punch as many cook­ies as pos­si­ble, plac­ing them on bak­ing sheet. Us­ing a small­er cook­ie cut­ter, punch the the mid­dle half of the cook­ies form­ing a ‘win­dow’ in the cook­ies.

6 Place the bak­ing sheet in­to the re­frig­er­a­tor and chill for 20 min­utes.

7 Pre­heat oven to 325°F.

8 Af­ter 20 min­utes, place the cook­ies in­to the oven and bake for 15 min­utes or, un­til edges are gold­en-brown.

9 Re­move the cook­ies out of the oven and al­low to cool com­plete­ly.

10 Once cook­ies have cooled, spread 1 tea­spoon of jel­ly on­to the whole cook­ies. Gen­tly sand­wich the ‘win­dowed’ cook­ies on­to the jel­ly. Serve and en­joy!