• Prep Time:
  • Cooking Time:
  • Serves: 30 Pieces

Kourabiedes

  • Recipe Submitted by on

Category: Cookies, Greek, Christmas

 Ingredients List

  • 2 c Butter, unsalted
  • 1 c Sugar, powdered
  • 3 Egg yolks
  • 3 tb Brandy
  • 2 ts Vanilla extract
  • 6 c Flour
  • 1/2 c Almonds (blanched),
  • -chopped
  • 1 lb Sugar, powdered
  • -(one package)

 Directions

Beat the butter with the sugar until it becomes fluffy. Add the egg yolks
one by one, beating continuously. Add the brandy and vanilla.

Blend in the almonds and the flour, a cup at a time. Use enough flour to
get a firm dough (it may take a bit more or less than the amount mentioned
in the ingredients list). Use your hands to do the mixing, as an electric
mixer will be useless after the first two or three cups of flour have been
added. Place the dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Shape the dough into balls, about one inch in diameter, flatten them and
place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Roll each cookie (while it is still hot) in the
powdered sugar and put it back on the cookie sheet. Repeat this step once
more, so that you get a thicker coating.

Place the coated cookies on a platter, liberally sprinkling each layer and
the bottom of the platter with powdered sugar. When you are done, there
shouldn't be any sugar left. Let them cool and they are ready to eat!

NOTES:

* Traditional Greek Christmas cookies coated with powdered sugar This
is one of the two kinds of confection that are traditionally consumed in
large quantities in Greece during the holiday season (the other is
melomacarona). As a quick lesson in greek, "kourabiedes" (pronounced
"kou-ra-bi-ETH-es", is the plural of the word "kourabies" (kou-ra-bi-ES).
Now all you need to enjoy them is the recipe. I got this one from a Greek
cookbook and translated it into English.

* The cookbook suggests the following variations: using ouzo or scotch
instead of brandy, and almond extract instead of vanilla extract, but I
have not tried any of them. Also, putting granulated instead of powdered
sugar in the dough didn't seem to affect the recipe, there's so much sugar
in it, that you couldn't tell the difference anyway.

* The cookbook also suggested using twice the amount of sugar for coating.
This is obviously too much, but it should make you realize that you must
really be liberal with the sugar!

: Difficulty: Easy to moderate.
: Time: 30 minutes preparation, one hour refrigeration, 20 minutes baking.
: Precision: approximate measurement OK.

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