Kourabiedes
Greek butter and almond shortbread crescents baked for 20 minutes and buried in icing sugar.
Photograph credit: Kourabiedes platter 2008 01 08 by Jastrow · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Before You Start
Beat the butter until almost white.
Handle the dough lightly.
Dust with sugar twice.
How to Make Kourabiedes
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Heat the oven to 170°C / 340°F and line two trays.
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Beat the butter and 80 g icing sugar for 10 minutes until almost white. Beat in the yolk and brandy.
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Fold in the almonds, flour and baking powder to a soft dough.
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Shape into 30 crescents and set on the trays. Bake for 20 minutes until pale and gold at the base.
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Sift half the dusting sugar over the warm biscuits and the rest when cool.
What's Going On Here
The first sign they are ready is the smell: butter and toasted almonds, a little brandy, and a first dusting of snow. Kourabiedes are Greek butter biscuits, crumbly and rich, covered in icing sugar and served at Christmas and weddings. Their texture comes from a great deal of butter, beaten until white.
Beat the softened butter, ideally clarified, with icing sugar for 10 minutes, until it is almost white and doubled in volume. This is the secret of their lightness. Add an egg yolk, brandy and the toasted ground almonds, then fold in the flour just until a soft dough forms. Do not overwork the dough, as warmth from your hands melts the butter and the biscuits spread.
Shape into small crescents or rounds, press a whole clove in the top of each if you like, and bake at 170°C / 340°F for 20 minutes until pale and just golden at the base. While they are still warm, sift icing sugar generously over them, and again when they are cool. Handle them gently as they are very fragile, and store them in a single layer.
Storage and Reheating
Keeps for 3 weeks in a tin, in a single layer.
Serving Kourabiedes
- Greek coffee
- Tea
- Brandy
Kourabiedes Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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