excellent recipe for greek cookies

Kourambiedes are those addictive little Greek butter cookies covered with powdered sugar:

We made some last week from the Vasilakos family recipe, and they turned out pretty well. Ours were round, not crescent shaped, but that's just the way our family makes them. Your cookies may vary ;-)

1 lb. unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
1 T vanilla extract
4 C flour
1 t baking powder
1-2 boxes powdered sugar

Melt the butter and pour into a large mixing bowl. Beat until thick like cream (this took us about 20 minutes of beating with a big electric mixer). Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, and 2T of the powdered sugar together, and add to wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until a soft dough is formed. If the dough is too soft to handle, chill in refrigerator for an hour or so. Shape into small balls (about 1" diameter is good), place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly by making an indentation with your finger. Bake about 20 minutes at 350F until golden but not browned. Cover a piece of waxed paper with a thick layer of sifted powdered sugar, and immediately place the hot cookies onto the sugar. Handle cookies carefully as they are very delicate and crumbly when warm. Sift more sugar over the top of the cookies to make a nice thick coating. Put individual cookies into fluted paper or foil cups, and sift more sugar on them to cover any holes.

At fredshouse we think kourambiedes are best after they have rested for a couple of days. Also a word to the wise, don't inhale when you eat them because the powdered sugar will get you!

Posted by Gene at December 30, 2005 11:37 AM