Candy Cane Short Bread

From Auntie Clara's Cookies and Treats

Noel celebrated Christams all year...

Noel’s Candy Cane Short Bread

½ pound butter (Belle assures me you cannot substitute anything else for the butter. Or they will simply be cookies, not Short Bread)

½ cup powdered sugar

2 cups flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder.

2 cups broken up candy canes. In a pinch you can use Starlight mints. Belle breaks her candy canes with a small hammer she found in Tabatha’s junk drawer. Do not break the candy canes to dust. Leave them in hunks ¼ inch and bigger so they really show up in your Short Bread.

Mix the butter and sugar until well incorporated. Mix in flour, salt and baking powder. Spill in your chopped candy canes and mix them in by hand (you do not want the mixer to chop them more).

Pat the dough into a 9x9x2 inch pan that has been sprayed lightly with vegetable spray. Score it into hunks by pricking it with the tines of a fork. Make sure you punch those tiny holes through out or your Short Break will bubble.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until it is lightly brown around the edges. In the Aga, place on the rack in the baking oven.

Crack into hunks. Servings--Not nearly enough.