Greek Christmas Cookies (Kourambiedes)

Ingredients

3 sticks unsalted butter, soft

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup powdered sugar, plus additional for coating

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the butter and salt and whip until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the sugar, egg, orange juice, almond extract and vanilla and beat until all of the ingredients are integrated. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add sifted flour to the butter mixture. Using a rubber spatula, remove the dough and transfer it onto a piece of waxed paper or parchment. Let sit about 5 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. After the dough has cooled, pinch off small pieces and roll them into about 1-inch balls between the palms of your hands. Place them in a single layer with space in between each, on a greased baking sheet. Repeat the process until all of the cookie dough has been rolled. Place the sheets in the oven and bake until the cookies are just slightly brown, about 15 minutes.  Using a spatula take off pan and set in powder sugar dusted platter. Be very gentle since they break if handled roughly or if you used too much flour.  If you want the powder sugar to stick on your cookies and to stay on no matter what or where they are placed or stored after dusting, the trick is you have to dust them right out of the oven. Cover with powder sugar. Cool. Cover again with powder sugar.

I hate it when they put cloves in these, but some Greeks take a whole clove and stick it in the center of each cookie before dusting with powder sugar.  The trick to dusting with powder sugar is to put about a cup of powder sugar into a metal sieve and dust on top of your cookies.

Holiday cookies should not only look festive but taste scrumpdilieshes. This recipe is taken from an old Greek cookie recipe famous throughout Greece.  Some claim that the recipe for Kourambiedes pronounced Koorampbeeaidaes is the only really true Greek cookie recipe that wasn’t modified, shared or taken from the Turks. In Symi (a Greek island)  they are shaped into palm size cookies cut with a cookie cutter into star fish.

These cookies make an elegant display at weddings as they look delightful in powdered sugar on doily dressed trays.  The cookie dough itself looks simple but the main idea is to get a dough that will not break apart when the cookie is taken out of the oven and dusted or will not crunch like a piece of toasted bread.  Doesn’t take much practice to learn how to make a trully original Greek cookie called kourambiedes.

The cookie dough is soft and melts in your mouth. Some adaptations are to add a half cup of finely ground almonds to the dough before shaping. The traditional kourambiedes melts in your mouth, has no nuts added and makes you feel sweetly grateful.

What I do to keep them fresh is to let them sit for several hours after dusting with powder sugar. I then use cup cake cup holders as individual doilies. I put one powdered cookie into a paper cup and store them in trays covered with waxed paper or in plastic containers in the freezer. The paper cupcake holders keep them separate and that way they don’t bump each other and they stay fresh and neat looking when served.  If you take them out of the freezer, let them thaw for an hour or two before serving.