Recipe for "kourabiedes"

NAME

     KOURABIEDES - Traditional  Greek  Christmas  cookies  coated
     with powdered sugar
     This is one of the two kinds of confection that  are  tradi-
     tionally  consumed  in large quantities in Greece during the
     holiday season (the other is melomacarona). As a quick  les-
     son  in  greek, ``kourabiedes'' (pronounced ``kou-ra-bi-ETH-
     es'', is the plural of the  word  ``kourabies''  (kou-ra-bi-
     ES).   Now  all  you need to enjoy them is the recipe. I got
     this one from  a  Greek  cookbook  and  translated  it  into
     English.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 30 pieces)

     500 g     unsalted butter
     130 g     powdered sugar
     3         egg yolks
     50 ml     brandy
     10 ml     vanilla extract
     600 g     flour
     60 g      blanched almonds, chopped
     500 g     powdered sugar (one package)

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Beat the butter with the sugar  until  it  becomes
               fluffy.
          (2)  Add the egg yolks one  by  one,  beating  continu-
               ously.
          (3)  Add the brandy and vanilla.
          (4)  Blend in the almonds and the flour,  a  cup  at  a
               time. Use enough flour to get a firm dough (it may
               take a bit more or less than the amount  mentioned
               in the ingredients list). Use your hands to do the
               mixing, as an electric mixer will be useless after
               the  first  two  or  three cups of flour have been
               added.
          (5)  Place the dough in the refrigerator for  at  least
               one hour.
          (6)  Shape the dough into balls, about 2-3 cm in diame-
               ter,  flatten  them,  and  place on greased cookie
               sheets. Bake at 175 deg. C for 20 minutes.
          (7)  Remove from the oven. Roll each cookie,  while  it
               is  still  hot,  in the powdered sugar, and put it
               back on the cookie sheet. Repeat  this  step  once
               more, so that you get a thicker coating.
          (8)  Place the coated cookies on a  platter,  liberally
               sprinkling  each  layer  and  the  bottom  of  the
               platter with powdered sugar. When  you  are  done,
               there shouldn't be any sugar left.
          (9)  Let them cool, and they are ready to eat!

NOTES

     The cookbook suggests the following variations:  using  ouzo
     or  scotch  instead of brandy, and almond extract instead of
     vanilla extract, but I have not tried  any  of  them.  Also,
     putting  granulated  instead  of powdered sugar in the dough
     didn't seem to affect the recipe-there's so  much  sugar  in
     it, that you couldn't tell the difference anyway.
     The cookbook also suggested using twice the amount of  sugar
     for  coating. This is obviously too much, but it should make
     you realize that you must really be liberal with the sugar!

RATING

     Difficulty: Easy to moderate.  Time: 30 minutes preparation,
     one  hour  refrigeration,  20  minutes  baking.   Precision:
     approximate measurement OK.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Kriton Kyrimis
     Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
     princeton!kyrimis   kyrimis@princeton.edu