It's funny how often the smallest of things seem to make the biggest impressions. We have been baking this simple shortbread to give away at our Holiday Open House since 2000 and more of you have requested it's recipe than any other. It only has a handful of ingredients and the technique is quite easy, but something magical happens when you put on your kilt and pat the dough out on old marble counter of your cottage before baking it on the bricks of your 17th century coal-fired oven. You don't live in an ancient Scottish cottage? Me neither. Besides, I think that kind of hard work is best left to grandmothers anyway. Except for the kilt, I take the more modern tack of using Nancy's standing mixer to quickly beat the heavy dough into submission before popping huge sheets of it into our electric ovens. As you can see from the recipe, this shortbread is not low fat nor gluten free, so if you have special dietary requirements, move on to the vegetable tray now. Don't even think about substituting something for all that delicious butter and sugar. You'll just goof the whole thing up and ensure that no one will be able to eat it. My advice is to follow up the cookies with a good Scot's whiskey chaser. That should at least off set the butter.