A wonderful Greek custom begins with the pomegranate. It is not a coincidence that all the homemade, crates in our grocery stores, and all the food shops are decorated by these wonderful fruits these days.
(more…)Tag: christmas
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Kourabiedes – Traditional Greek Christmas Cookie Recipe
During Christmas there are two cookies that were and still are very much traditional in our house. Eating isli and kourabiedes. While i have covered the first in a previous article it is time i think to focus on the latter.
Kourabiedes are cookies that are dived in sugar and because of there white appearance are really popular during Christmas. When you see them, they may resemble light and airy shortbread, but are made with the addition of almonds. Almonds are the most important ingredient in a Kourabied, and provide the cookie’s signature almond flavor. Other ingredients include large amount of butter, as well as flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract, among others.
In the past few years i always remembered my mother experimenting with kourambiedes and trying to create a less sugary version of them.
INGREDIENTS FOR KOURABIEDES
- 700gr of flower
- 500gr of butter
- 2 eggs
- 50gr cognac +20gr mastic
- 1vanilla sticks
- 100gr powdered sugar
- 140gr of almonds
- 1 spoon of baking soda
For the topping
2 x 200 gr of white chocolate
Our Kourabiedes are ready! HOW TO MAKE KOURABIEDES
- Start by roasting the almonds. Place the roughly chopped almonds on a baking tray and sprinkle with some water. Bake them for 7-8 minutes, until roasted, being careful not to burn them. Set aside or put in the fridge to cool down
- In the mixer continue by “hitting” the butter with the powdered sugar for 10 minutes until they become cream.
- Add one by one the eggs, the vanilla and soda. Afterwards, 2-3 spoons of flour so the mixture is ready to accept the cognac. Afterwards, we add the almonds.
- Now its time to add the rest of the flour slowly from the sieve. Continue to mix, until the flour is soaked. Be careful though not to over do it.
- Take slowly and make small -bit flattish- balls of 30gr each. Put them in the oven and bake them on 170c for 20 minutes.
- As we bake them, in a small pot, we melt around of 200gr of white chocolate.
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Happy 2013!
Its funny but I look back at the previous articles and already this blog has reached on his second year…going for the third. I have managed one way or another to reach to 97 different recipes and counting… I never expected that when I first started but as I realised there is always a new recipe, always something that you have missed or you wish to try.
In the end of the day I realised how nice is to cook something nice that will relax you from the stress of the day. Honestly I came to realise how creating a new recipe and creating a new dish can make you happy.
Ofcourse I am not claiming that I am creating new recipes, I am just copying mainly the recipes of my mother and trying to remember what she was giving us when I was still going to school. Nevertheless for me that is still creating something new… as I never before had cooked gemista or sea breams or even just a stake.
That is the idea of that blog and basically passing the knowledge and the experiences of a non-professional cook that is still learning by the way…
And by those things we reach to Christmas, where I wont be in London as I managed to arranged to further away again this time of the year. So, i will not try to make again one of the typical sweets that my mother was doing during Christmas but …oh well, maybe next year.
Enjoy the Christmas and Happy 2013.