Kourabiedes are my love at a first sight. Since my first Christmas in Greece, I completely fell in love in this buttery taste interlaced with almond crust and icing sugar. And after many years I finally tucked my sleeves and prepared these Greek delicious cookies myself for this Christmas.

There are many advantages of living in Greece. One of them is that most Greeks are passionate about cooking and you can get the best cooking advice from friends, family, and strangers. About kourabiedes I learned that the most important secret is at its heart – the butter – it must be fresh. Otherwise, you won’t achieve the delicious results like from Greek ‘γιαγιά’ (eng. grandma).

Check my recipe below.

INGREDIENTS:

500g of fresh butter – room temperature – (The butter can be from cow milk or sheep milk. I prepared with cow’s milk and I’m very happy with the results.)

220g icing sugar

1 g vanilla powder

Rosewater

250g coarsely chopped, unsalted and toasted almonds

900g all-purpose flour

1 pinch salt

For topping:

300g icing sugar

Rosewater

1. In a mixer’s bowl add the fresh butter. Mix it well for 10 minutes until fluffy texture. Then add the icing sugar, and beat with the paddle attachment at high speed for 5 – 10 minutes.
2. To the mixture add the vanilla powder, 1 tbl spoon rosewater, keep beating for 2-3 minutes. Then remove the bowl from the mixer.
3. Add the coarsely shopped almonds to the bowl and mix it well with spatula. Then add flour and pinch of salt.
4. Mix all the ingredients with wooden spoon very softly in order not to loose volume. Once all the ingredients are mixed together then you can start mixing it with your hands. It’s advisable to use one-use kitchen gloves. The warmth of the hands can melt the butter and contribute to lower quality of the dough. While wearing the gloves can help to keep the same temperature of the dough while forming the cookies.
5. Preheat the oven to 180C (350 F) set to fan. You can start shaping the balls – 30 g each, and place them into a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes until light brown to achieve smooth texture. The longer you keep your cookies in the oven, the harder and crunchy they become.
6. Last, but not least put a layer of the freshly baked cookies on a serving platter, spray with rosewater, and dust with icing sugar. Follow the same process for all of the cookies.

Enjoy!