It is nearly Christmas and preparations have begun. We decorate our house, and we buy or make sweets. During the Christmas Holiday Season, there are two kinds of cookies you can buy or taste all over Greece: melomakarona and kourabiedes. Maybe you would like to bake those delicious cookies yourself, and get into a Greek Christmas mood?
Below you will find our recipe for baking “kourabiedes”.
Kourabiedes are one of the most traditional Christmas sweets and you find them in all the bakeries and pastry shops in Greece. The roots of “kourabie” are oriental, as we find similar sweets in Lebanon, Turkey etc. In Greece, the kourabies was introduced in the 1920s, along with the Greek refugees from Smyrna. The recipe quickly spread throughout Greece. In some regions, this cookie is not only made during Christmas time but also for other celebrations, such as weddings, baptisms, etc.
Ingredients
• 900 g all-purpose flour
• 500 g butter
• 220 g icing sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla 200 g
• slivered almonds, toasted (toast for 5-10 minutes at 200 C)
For sprinkling and dusting
• rosewater
• icing sugar
Method
• Remove the butter from the refrigerator about 2-3 hours before using, so that it can soften at room temperature.
• Preheat the oven to 180* C, Fan.
• In the mixer, beat the butter for 5-6 minutes on high speed until it turns white. Add the icing sugar and vanilla. Continue beating for another 5-7 minutes. It will be ready when it looks like whipped cream.
• Remove the mixing bowl and add the flour in batches. Gently fold in with a spatula and add the almonds.
• The mixture should be soft but not that soft that it will stick to your hands.
• Mold into balls the size of walnuts (25 g). Place them in rows, on a baking sheet.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes, until they turn light golden.
• Remove from oven. Carefully move them from the baking sheet to cool. They are very soft and crumbly when hot.
• When cool, spray them with some rose water.
• Put some icing sugar in a sieve and dust.
Good luck and Enjoy!
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