2 cup butter, unsalted
1 cup sugar, powdered
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp brandy
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 cup flour
1/2 cup almonds (blanched), chopped
1 lb sugar, powdered (one package)
Directions
Beat the butter with the sugar until it becomes
fluffy. Add the egg yolks one by one, beating
continuously. Add the brandy and vanilla.
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. Place the
dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
Shape the dough into balls, about one inch in
diameter, flatten them and place on greased cookie
sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes.
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.
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. Let them cool and they
are ready to eat!
NOTES:
* Traditional Greek Christmas cookies coated with
powdered sugar -- This is one of the two kinds of
confection that are traditionally consumed in large
quantities in Greece during the holiday season (the
other is melomacarona). As a quick lesson 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.
* 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!
: Difficulty: Easy to moderate.
: Time: 30 minutes preparation, one hour
refrigeration, 20 minutes baking. : Precision:
approximate measurement OK.
: Kriton Kyrimis
: Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
: princeton!kyrimis kyrimis@princeton.edu
: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Servings: 30 pieces
Kourabiedes Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Alcohol; Appetizer; Beverage; Nut
The History of Recipes
We can trace the history of `recipes` back into history, certainly as far into history as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and maybe further still. Interesting though that is, generally, these ancient cookbooks were just basic pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for meal preparation.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to food historians are a few stone tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making drinkers feel wonderful and blissful. Progressing into Roman times around 25BC a man called Apicius compiled a number of scripts describing recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. In his works, he recounts how the roman meals were split into starters, main course and desserts, a very modern way of dining. He also describes how the Romans were skilled in the use of a wide range of herbs, including a few that will be familiar to modern chefs for example bay, fennel and asafoetida. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought us many foods and spices from Arab cuisine, including coriander, parsley, and basil. The introduction of these new culinary ideas was responsible for an increase in books on cooking, the majority of which still exist in private collections. The introduction of the TV brought us cooking programs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. And that neatly brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, permitting everybody to access thousands of recipes just like those on the site you are now reading. |
We hope you enjoy this Kourabiedes recipe.
