This recipe for pecan shortbread—among the favorites for Grey— is simple and easy. It can be made in less than 30 minutes (minus time to cool the dough) and has only five ingredients, making it the ultimate holiday 5&30 dish.

“The shortbread plays on the buttery, creamy, nutty flavors,” Grey says. “And the pecan is perfect for the holidays.”

Grey, who opened up her bakery in November 2024, has been cooking professionally for the last 15 years in cities around the U.S. Her early influences include her grandmother, who baked with her as a child in East Tennessee, and a chef in Seattle who took her under their wing.

After landing her first paid kitchen job, in Seattle, Grey started to bake cookies, pies and other sweets to contribute to the restaurant staff’s family meals. When the chef at that restaurant asked her to come on board as a pastry chef for a new venture he was starting, Grey knew little about baking but she took the job and fell in love with it.

After a decade in Seattle, followed by stints in Charleston and Austin, Grey moved to Asheville in September 2023 and pursued her dream of opening her own bakery.

Since then, Grey has become known for her sophisticated and constantly rotating flavors, like miso caramel, sorghum pecan, black sesame, and yuzu matcha. She says living and working in different parts of the country has helped influence her baking: “In Austin, you have Mexican influence. In Charleston, there’s a lot of Southern things like sorghum. And in Seattle, you have so much Asian influence. I try to incorporate those flavors.”

Whether you add these pecan shortbread cookies to your own cookie box for gifting or devour them all yourself, you’ll be delighted that something so rich and delicious can be so simple and quick to prepare.

This recipe for pecan shortbread requires only five ingredients.

Pecan Shortbread

Makes about 40 cookies

1 cup pecans, finely chopped or processed in a food processor

½ pound salted butter, softened

½ cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 teaspoon vanilla

2½ cups all-purpose flour

Chop or process the pecans in a food processor.

In a small mixer, combine butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Add all-purpose flour and mix until just combined. Add chopped pecans.

Roll out dough between two pieces of parchment paper until ½ inch thick. Place in freezer and cool until hardened. 

Cut with a 2-inch round cookie cutter—the dough can be re-rolled twice.

Place on a greased sheet tray and sprinkle the tops of the cookies with granulated sugar. Bake at 325°F for 8–10 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Let cool and store in an airtight container.