In Greece two of the most popular desserts that are made during the holiday season are kourabiedes and melomakarona. Kourabiedes are known outside of Greece as a cookie, but they are almost too substantial to be called a cookie. They are a shortbread type of sweet, made of flour, sugar, butter and almonds and covered with powdered sugar, which make them look like a snowball. When you eat them, the literally melt in your mouth along with all that powdered sugar.
Nutritionally, what you see is what you get: sugar, flour and butter. On the other hand you don’t eat a handful of these like you would cookies, but rather just one as a dessert. Greeks typically make a big batch of these sweets and they last through the whole holiday season, so there is no pressure to eat all of them in a week! I remember my grandma used to hide them (I think she actually locked them) in a cabinet in her dining room for weeks and would only serve them when guests visited.
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In the past, for Greeks, sweets, particularly those made with butter were a luxury item (butter and sugar was expensive) and were not to be eaten everyday. But my grandma’s practice of hiding them is also a great strategy to avoid overeating all these holiday treats. The rule “out of sight-out of mind” really applies here: what you don’t see, you don’t eat. Studies have actually showed that we eat more when the food is in front of us than when it is hiding in a cabinet. When you’re done making these, leave them on a nice platter for a few days, but after that store them in containers; they will last longer and you won’t be tempted all the time.
Kourabiedes: Greek Christmas Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks room temperature)
- 4 cups + ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon cognac or brandy or ouzo
- 3 cups cake flour (regular flour will work too)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup chopped or ground toasted almonds
- Rosewater (look for it in middle eastern stores or make this substitute (see below)
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350 degrees F (180 Celsius)
- In a large bowl whip the butter until white and fluffy. Add the ½ cup powdered sugar gradually. Continue mixing and add the egg yolk and the cognac or ouzo. In another bowl sift flour and mix well with the baking powder, add the chopped almonds. Add the flour mixture to the butter and mix. Knead for a few minutes and if needed add a bit more flour. This dough will be a bit sticky. Put the dough in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remove from the refrigerator and make small round shapes about the size of a walnut and flatten a bit with your fingers. Another common shape is the crescent. My 3-year-old son also made some in the shape of a star using a cookie cutter.
- Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. Be careful not to over bake otherwise these cookies will be hard instead of having a melt-in-your-mouth quality.
- Once you remove them from the oven sprinkle with some rose water or substitute.
- Fill shallow bowl with the rest of the powdered sugar (4 cups), dip each kourabie in the sugar mixture making sure they are well covered with sugar, place on a large platter. Once you have 1 layer of kourabiedes on the platter, sift powdered sugar over the kourabiedes, continue the same process with the next layer, layering until you have small pyramid.
Notes
Add to a small pot 1 ½ cup water, orange peel from 1 orange and some whole cloves. Bring the water to a boil, strain, and the flower water substitute is ready to use.
SAVE FOR LATER AND PIN IT!
Photo Credit: DCGreekChurch for flickr
14 Comments
Those are my favourite cookies!
I can’t wait to start baking them!
My mother and father in law are both Greek and my mother in law may she rest in peace, taught me to make these amazing cookies, I was so blessed she did that with me it was an amazing moment with her sorry for my little story what I wanted to say was she didn’t use almonds or rose water instead she used I orange squeezed just the juice that was the only difference but they for sure melted in your mouth and my hips and thighs was sure not melting that’s for sure I could eat a ton in one sitting lol thanks for the recipe I was wanting to check out the different ways others made them so thanks for sharing happy holidays!!
Una traduzione in italiano dovreste metterla.
I’ve made this in the dim and distant past. Now, my partner cannot eat tree nuts. Of course, I’d prefer to have the ground nuts but will the recipe hold up without?
You can make them without the nuts.
These were fantastic! Only addition was some vanilla sugar mixed with the powder sugar! I put my finished cookies in the refrigerator to finish off cooling completely, don’t want them to stick together! Made the substitute rose water too! A great big thank you and Merry Christmas!
So glad I found your recipe! Have always wanted to make these, we are enjoying some now and the rest go to family and friends!
Ok, all of the recipes that I’ve tried from your site have been easy-to-follow and very tasty! 26years living in Greece, I’m going to finally make some kourabeides! Many Greek bakers don’t like to share their recipes and if they do, they tend to forget that one little secret that makes it or breaks it. Wish me luck! Kales Yiortes!
Good Luck Patricia! Happy Holidays!
I received a box of these as a gift when I went back home to New Jersey!!! But when I arrived in Greece…Mrs. Sigalas offered me apricots from her tree that were stuffed with an almond and put in a big jar with a simple sugar liquid and a strong cup of greek coffee. All were served on a little white dish. It was just wonderful…
Nancy,
What a wonderful recipe!
oh my god!! A friend n I were out to lunch at this small greek coffee shop up by where I work during the holiday season n at the check out counter there were a tray of kourambiedes cookies so I tasted one n it was like a bag of lays potato chip effect lol i couldnt stop eating them they were sooooo good, since then ive been searchin the internet where to purchase them from, actually the owner of that coffee shop mentioned Astoria, Queens but surely there has to b somewhere closer!!! they r a must have!!! maybe I’ll try my hand at making a batch myself who knows i may just b a baker lol
Good Luck! Let us know how they turn out.
These are my favorite cookies! Thanks for sharing 🙂