Kourabiedes – Greek Christmas pastries

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 225 g butter, soft
• 60 g icing sugar, for the dough
• 400 g icing sugar, for sprinkling
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp ouzo
• 350 g flour
• 120 g almonds, ground
• 1 packet of baking powder

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 14 minutes; Total time approx. 44 minutes

They melt on your tongue!

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, combine the butter and powdered sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg yolk and ouzo, then add the flour, baking powder, and almonds and knead into a soft, supple dough. Either divide the dough into 24 pieces, shape them into balls, and flatten them slightly, or roll out the dough to about 1 cm thick and cut out cookies using crescent or star shapes. Place the cookies about 2-3 cm apart on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven for about 14 minutes. Meanwhile, generously line the bottom of a large, shallow dish (baking sheet, pizza pan, or pizza plate) with sifted powdered sugar. When the cookies are done, remove them from the oven, let them cool for 1-2 minutes, and sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar while still on the baking sheet. I always use a small tea strainer. If you scrape the powdered sugar around the bottom of the strainer with a teaspoon, you can sprinkle the cookies more precisely. Let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes, otherwise they’ll break, and then carefully place them on the bowl of powdered sugar. Don’t skimp on the powdered sugar. Let the cookies cool for 3-4 hours and then store them in an airtight cookie jar. They’ll keep for at least 4-5 weeks.