My friend Kat recently had a blog contest for cookies and having wrenched my back I was unable to participate. I had a hankering for one of my favorite cookies since reading all her contest recipes and took an old recipe that was in my Mom’s collection of recipes: Greek Butter Cookies, or Kourabiedes! This is a good Christmas cookie! The cookies were developed around 1200 B.C. when baker’s struggled to find ingredients that they could put together for a sweet confection for the table.
Greek Butter Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup of butter, softened
1 cup plus 1 pound of powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1 TBS coffee flavored brandy (or use plain, but the coffee flavor is a really nice addition!)
2 1/2 cups of flour, sifted
1/8 tsp of baking powder, sifted into the flour
1/2 cup of finely chopped almonds or walnuts – you choose!
Get your oven going by preheating it to 350◦. Combine the flour and baking powder. Put the butter into your mixer bowl and slowly add the powdered sugar. When fluffy, stir in the coffee brandy and the egg yolk. With a fork, start to mix in the flour mixture a bit at a time. About half way through I stop using the fork and switch to my hands. It seems to blend the flour in better at that point. Knead the dough until it is smooth and can be shaped into balls.
Line a cookie sheet with foil and grease with butter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and roll in a bowl of powdered sugar. The sugar will react with the butter to stick to the cookie. Place them in a single layer on a plate. When you are done, using a sifter, sift some of the remaining powdered sugar over the cookies. Let them fully cool before eating!
Makes about 36 cookies.
Life in the Foothills 