| How about a Greek cookie? Here are some recipes. You can search for others. There are other variations. Families will have a recipe they pass down from generation to generation. KOURABIEDES: http://www.greekorthodoxclt.org/greek_recipes.htm 1 lb. sweet butter 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 egg yolk 1 jigger whiskey 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 tsp. almond extract 6 tbl. sp. toasted almonds, chopped fine 4 cups sifted flour 3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar Beat butter and sugar until creamy, about 15 minutes. Add egg yolk, flavorings and almonds, beating until well blended. Remove from beater and gradually add sifted flour to make a soft dough. Pinch off pieces of dough and shape carefully into various designs - crescent, round, etc.. Place on ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Bake in over at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until very lightly browned. Allow to cool slightly before removing from baking sheet. Carefully place on flat surface, which was been sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Sprinkle confectioner's sugar over cookies. Cool. Makes 5 dozen. Kourabiedes (Greek Almond Butter Cookies) http://www.odysseykitchens.com/recipe/kourabi.htm (This recipe is for one batch. . .but can be increasedIve done as much as a 5X batch! My normal batch is a 3X.) Ingredients: 1 C butter Ό C sugar, granulated 2 C flour 1 C ground almonds ½ tsp ground cloves (or more, to taste) 1 tsp vanilla (I use real vanilla extract) 1-1/2 tsp Metaxa Greek Brandy Rose Water Confectioners sugar Cream butter, then add other ingredients, and mix thoroughly. Shape with fingers into small balls (the traditional recipe calls for shaping into crescent shape, and inserting a whole clove into the middle of each crescent, instead of using ground clove in the mixture). Arrange on buttered cookie sheet. Bake 35 minutes in slow oven (300 degrees F). Immediately upon removing from oven, mist cookies with Rose Water and roll in confectioners sugar, then cool on a dry rack. When cool, roll again in confectioners' sugar coating liberally. May be stored in an airtight container up to three months or more. Christopher Williams is Bella Online's Greek Food Host Kourabiedes or Kourambiethes Celebration Cookies Kourabiedes are one of the most popular Greek desserts. In Greece they appear at weddings, birthdays, name days, christenings and every holiday. During the Turkish occupation of Greece, these cookies were made crescent shaped, but once Greece regained its independence the cookies became round. Whichever shape you make them, though, Kourabiedes are delicious. 2 cups unsalted butter 3/4 cup powdered sugar 1 egg yolk 1/4 cup of brandy or 1/4 cup orange juice approx 4 1/2 cups flour cloves powdered sugar for dusting (at least 1 cup) Allow butter to soften at room temperature then beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar then the egg yolk and brandy (or orange juice). Add flour in 1 cup amounts mixing until it forms a soft dough. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Now make in to either 1 1/2 balls or shape the balls in to crescents depending on your preference, then push a clove in to the center of each cookie. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes (the cookies should not brown but will be firm when done). Place the cookies on a rack and cool slightly then sift a lot of powdered sugar over them. Makes about 36 cookies. My Greek friend used to share these with me. To die for! |