Grandma Chrysoula’s Kourabiedes

This is a post I’ve been meaning to share forever. I’ve been blogging since 2012 and every year this season I’d think about it. Well, ladies and gents, I guess it was about time! Since I have a lot of photos on my hands and I want to give several details in both Greek and English, I thought it would be neater to share everything in two different posts—otherwise, you might have had to scroll to infinity.

So let’s get down to the details. Kourabiedes, pronounced [kou-rub-ye-thes], are light sugar/butter cookies, fluffy but crispy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth crumbly to the bite. It is a traditional Christmas cookie, but in some parts of Greece, they’re also offered as a treat at weddings and christenings (since they’re sprinkled with powdered sugar, their white color is associated with innocence & purity).

This recipe was passed down to my mother from her mother (my grandmother Chrysoula). It is hand-written with a blue-ink fountain pen (unknown by who—my grandmother couldn’t read or write, so she must have dictated this to someone and then had it sent to my mom) and if you look close, despite several spelling mistakes, you can distinguish the diacritics (accents) of the Greek polytonic orthography system above certain vowels. I had to laminate the piece of paper because it was falling apart, but I so wanted to keep it!

Before we get down to the actual recipe and all the how-to’s, I would like to draw your attention to a very particular ingredient, the wood-ash ‘lye’ water. Lye water seems to be an extremely confusing term and googling it, will most likely add to your confusion! I had to read through a lot of articles before I could make any sense of it myself, and here’s what I’ve come down to: Food-grade lye (as it is marketed in Europe and the US) is sodium hydroxide (NaOH), commonly called caustic soda, and it is a very strong alkali. Soap-makers use it, but it is also used in baking (a key ingredient in pretzel recipes) and has several other uses in the food industry (e.g. in chocolate & cocoa processing). It is often confused with potassium hydroxide (KOH), commonly called caustic potash, which is also used in soap-making and has several other industrial uses. The wood-ash ‘lye’ is a tad stronger (has a higher pH) than baking soda (NaHCO₃) and it is nowhere near NaOH in strength. It is a mixture of sodium carbonate & potassium carbonate, NOT hydroxide! The Chinese ‘lye water’ used in Asian cuisine is also wood-ash (or other plant-ash) water. You can use that in your recipe, but I will also tell you how to make your own—if you have a fireplace it’s not that big of a deal.

On an easier note, another special ingredient is Ouzo: an anise-flavored aperitif that is widely consumed in Greece & Cyprus. You could replace it with several other anise-flavored liqueurs such as the French Anisette or Pastis, the Italian Sambuca, the Spanish Ojen, or with Arak, the traditional aperitif of Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, and Iran.

Okay! Let’s get down to business—first, you need to blanch and toast your almonds. You can make them the day before as they need to be completely cool when used in the recipe.

This is what your almonds should look like when cut in fourths:

Moving on to the next step—making your own wood-ash ‘lye’ water. First and foremost, you will have to make sure the ash you use is nothing but clean, pure-wood ash. This practically means that if you have a fireplace or are borrowing ash from a neighbor or friend who does, you can’t use it if you/they burn:

• firelogs containing petroleum or bio wax
• sawdust or recycled coffee grounds firelogs
• newspaper logs
• any other type of fake firelogs
• wood or corn pellets
• random disposable items e.g. napkins, tissues, cigarette butts

One more step before getting down to the actual recipe!

So without further ado, here’s the basic recipe:

See how clear clarified butter looks? It makes a lot of difference both to the taste and to the texture of the end product.

And this is what it should look like after it’s been beaten for an hour:

This is what your “patties” should look like:

And here they are out of the oven:

See those cracks I was talking about? They are pretty essential for taking in the necessary amount of powdered sugar later on and they’re also a good indication that the kourabiedes are baked to perfection.

I realize that with all the prep required this might seem a bit intimidating but I do hope you’ll give kourabiedes a try, they’re sooo worth it. Enjoy!

Pssst! You can find the recipe in Greek here – Η συνταγή στα Ελληνικά εδώ.

*images by Athina D. Pantazatou for Kicking Back the Pebbles