Kourampiedes , Greek Christmas butter cookies

 

Kourampiedes recipe, a traditional Greek Christmas cookie full of butter aromas, covered in icing sugar. Sure to please everybody this festive season!

Ingredients

• 1.6 lb / 750 g. cow butter cold diced
• 2 oz / 60 g. icing sugar
• 2 egg yolks preferably organic
• 1/2 tsp clove ground
• 2 tbsp cognac
• 2.2 lb / 1 kg all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 12 oz / 350 g. almonds chopped roast for 15-20 minutes at 320oF / 160oC
• plenty of icing sugar to dust

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350oF / 180oC.
2. In a standing mixer, beat the butter with the icing sugar on high speed, for 15 minutes, until pale and frothy.
3. Add the egg yolks, clove, cognac, and beat for another 2 minutes.
4. Remove the bowl from the mixer and slowly add the flour and the baking powder. Knead the dough during the addition, until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Avoid over kneading unless you crave stiff kourampiedes!
5. Add the roasted almonds and knead.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
7. With your hands, form medium-sized round cookies. Put on the baking sheet, leaving some space between each cookie.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden.
9. Allow to cool down completely before dusting with icing sugar.
   =================================
   Kourampiedes recipe, a traditional Greek Christmas cookie covered in icing sugar, sure to please everybody this festive season!
   

   
   If you have a Greek heritage, you absolutely know that Christmas is a highly divisive period. Team- melomakarona and team- kourampiedes is an ongoing rivalry, with devoted fans from across the country, or the globe even!

   Kourampiedes are incredibly delicious butter cookies, soft, fluffy with a crunchy bite and rich almond (or pistachio if you are feeling adventurous) and incredible aroma. Savvy cooks know that the traditional recipe requires time and effort. Well, this kourampiedes recipe changes everything! 

   A few tips for kourampiedes success. Firstly and most importantly, use good quality butter. Most cooks in Greece use sheep butter or a combination of sheep and goat butter. As you can imagine, this brings a milky, deep and intense flavor to the cookie. Not to mention the aroma… divine! But, I have to warn you, it’s not a subtle or soft feeling, so you should consider opting for regular cow butter as my recipe suggests. Cold butter works best for cookies and gives a luscious and refined texture.

   Next, you need to master your kneading skills! Too much mixing will make the cookie dough stiff. To little kneading and the ingredients will not incorporate well. Find the rhythm that works best for you. Better yet, add each ingredient little by little, so you can ensure that all tasted do blend well. 

   Now, it’s time for the hardest part. Baking! As I’ve mentioned before, when you bake, you have to constantly keep an eye on the oven. A good friend of mine is always saying the oven is heating, the baker is baking. That’s because the oven is such an unreliable way of cooking. After it reached the designated temperature, it still keeps climbing to higher temperatures. That’s why the first batch of baked goods is beautiful, golden-crusted and the next batches turn out brown-is. Should you notice that your cookies are browning suspiciously fast, lower the temperature.