Greek Christmas butter cookie bites, nobody can resist eating only one!
These Greek Christmas butter cookies are my favorites, not only they’re so yummy, easy and flavoured with tsipouro, but also cause it’s my grandma’s Eleni recipe! That brings me so many memories! Kourampiedes are traditionally infused with rose water but my grandma used to pour a shot of tsipouro from our city Volos, Thessaly. My family has been baking this recipe every Christmas for over 100 years! The aromas of tsipouro accompanied with butter and toasted almonds and give this unique flavor to the kourabiedes cookies! Who can resist eating a few more kourabiedes bites?!
What is tsipouro? Tsipouro is an brandy from Greece and in particular Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, and the island of Crete (where Cretans call it tsikoudia or raki). Tsipouro is a strong distilled spirit containing 40–45% alcohol and is produced from either the pomace (the residue of the winepress) or from the wine after the grapes and juice have been separated. It comes in two types, pure and anise-flavoured, and is usually not aged in barrels, although barrel aged versions do exist. Let’s celebrate Christmas with these sweet butter cookie bites, which will definitely set you on a festive mood!
Kourabiedes Bites
Description
The most delightful & aromatic Christmas cookies, infused with tsipouro and made of butter, toasted almonds and icing sugar!
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a stand mixer beat the butter (which is at room temperature) for 10 minutes until light and fluffy. Then add the icing sugar and vanilla extract and beat for a few more minutes until smooth.
- At the same time, put the almonds in the oven to roast for 10 minutes at 160 degrees.
- Remove the mixture from the mixer and pour it into a large bowl. Add the tsipouro (after dissolving the baking soda in it), baking power and shifted flour gradually. Once you have added all the powders, add the almonds at the end.
- First, whisk the mixture with a spatula and when it’s formed, knead with your hands and cut into the shapes you desire. Place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake for 8-10 minutes at 180 degrees.
- Remove kourabiedes cookies from the oven and sprinkle with the icing sugar & vanilla powder. Enjoy!
Notes
- Butter: remember that the butter should be at room temperature before starting the recipe. If you desire stronger Kourabie flavor, you should use 250g cow’s milk butter and 250g of sheep’s butter, the combination of them, will give you the traditional strong flavor!
- Butter & sugar: beat the butter and icing sugar with a mixer until fluffy and white whipped cream. This could take almost from 10 to 20 minutes.
- Mixture: after beating the butter, make sure it warms up as little as possible. If the butter warms up it will lose its volume and the kourabiedes cookies won’t became fluffy!
- Almonds: use toasted and not raw, cause toasting release all the best aromas of almonds! Also, make sure to let your toasted almonds to cool completely before adding them to the mixture. If they’re still hot, the butter is going to melt.
- Flour: sift the flour, so that the cookies become fluffier!
- Tsipouro: my grandma used to pour a shot of aniseed tsipouro from Volos city. Of course you could substitute with raki or tsipouro without anise or liquor or even rose water.
- Baking: Do not over bake, we prefer a crispy outside and soft inside cookie, with a light gold colour!
- Vegan: For vegan kourabiedes bites, just substitute the butter with plant-based butter.
- Servings: This recipe gives you around 90-100 tiny bites of kourabiedes cookies!
