Kourabiedes

Kourabiedes (Greek traditional Christmas biscuits)

Weight:          1,200 gr.

Preparation: 1 hour

Baking:          20 ΄- 30 ΄

Ingredients:

• 300g milk butter (I prefer unsalted butter type LURPAK)

• 120g almonds

• 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder 

• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder or a vanilla extract

• 110g icing sugar and extra for sprinkling

• 25ml dark rum or cognac (personally I prefer spiced rum, with various herbs)

• 600g plain flour

Method:

We spread the almonds in a baking pan and bake in a preheated oven at 160c or a fan oven at 140c for 8 minutes, until roasted. After cooled, we break into chunks using a mortar & pestle or use a rolling pin, placing the cooled almonds between two pieces of baking paper. The size of the almond pieces will depend on how we like them, and how big we will make our kourabiedes!

Next, we beat the butter with the icing sugar on high speed (though start off at slow speed until the icing sugar starts to mix with the butter, otherwise your kitchen will have a light dusting of sugar, everywhere!) for about 20 minutes in the mixer. 20 minutes seems like a long time, but it is necessary as you want the butter and sugar mix to look like a glossy cream.

Add the flour, the baking powder, vanilla and the rum or liqeur continue mixing at a lower speed for about 10 minutes. Then we'll add the almonds just to mix them in.

NB: we just tried Irish Cream Liqeur and it works really well!

We form the kourabiedes into balls with a diameter of about 3 centimetres each and squeeze them with our finger slightly on top. Put them on a baking sheet, on top of baking paper, and bake them in a preheated oven at 170c or a fan oven at 150c, for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size we gave them.

After taking them out of the oven, we let them cool well and then toss them well in the icing sugar and place them on a platter. 

We can place them as we want, just keep in mind, that we should sprinkle each row with more icing sugar.

TIP: (The more we beat the mix, the better the dough will become. That's the secret of the Kourabiedes.)