Tender, buttery shortbread with a hint of almond and studded with mini chocolate chips. This recipe is ridiculously easy to prepare, making it a perfect recipe for stress-free entertaining!

My mom is the one who came up with this new variation of my Cranberry Almond Shortbread Bars, which makes perfect sense, because if anyone’s the queen of chocolate chips, it’s her, so it’s not surprising to me that she came up with such an idea.

The shortbread itself is virtually identical to the original, soft and buttery, with just a hint of almond, and oh-so-easy to prepare. But here, instead of orange peel and dried cranberries, I’ve added mini chocolate chips.

But cranberry and chocolate chip are just the beginning, this shortbread is incredibly versatile and could serve as the foundation for myriad flavor variations. I mean, I can think of about a dozen sitting here right now (so needless to say, you’ll probably be seeing more shortbread recipes in the near future!)

The hardest part of this recipe? Deciding whether to cut it into squares, triangles, or sticks. I mean, I stood there with a knife in my hand for at least 15 minutes staring at these bars, willing them to ‘speak to me’ and help me decide.

And then I thought that these cookies would be particularly good dunking cookies.

Sticks it is, then! The perfect shape for dunking!

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