Christmas cookies - Stuffed kourambiedes

Kourambiedes are traditional cookies made by all good Greek housewives before Christmas (the rest buy them from confectioneries). As with all traditional foods there are many variations of the recipe adapted to fit individual tastes. Kourambiedes are buttery cookies containing almonds. In our house, we prefer to insert the nuts as stuffing because this distinguishes the aromas of the dough and the staffing and makes it more interesting (and tastier). A few weeks ago I was reading this post from Habeas Brulee and I thought that this could be the best recipe for this contest as they stuffed (with almonds) and layered (sugar icing on top). I also added some extra spices to fit the scents of the books. Wish me luck . I am also submitting these cookies to the foodbloga’s event: Christmas Cookies from around the world 2007.

This is the dairy free/cholesterol free version of the recipe which the Greek housewives have come up to in order to be able to eat this before Christmas (during fasting). You can of course substitute the vegetable shortening with an equal amount of butter.

 

When I decided to make these for Christmas, I had a look through my mother’s recipe notebook and all I found was a list of ingredients:

As you can see this is not very informative. So, I asked my mother to explain the process to me. She (being the usual control freak when it comes to cooking) said that she has to show me how it’s done and probably make the dough for me. I agreed as I had no other choice. To cut a long story short, in the end as we could not find time to be at home together long enough, I made the cookies myself and she just came to show me how to make the dough during her lunch break.

 So here’s how you make them:

Ingredients: (yield about 50)

350 gr of vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups of vegetable/sunflower oil

1 1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar (fine sugar)

1/2 cup Cognac

1/2 cup rosewater

2 teaspoon vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

approximately 2 kg all purpose flour

For the stuffing:

250 gr almonds

2-3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground glove

And:

confectioner’s sugar for the icing

Start with putting the vegetable shortening in a bowl and stir it using a mixer.

Add the oil and continue mixing.

Add the sugar little by little (so you don’t mess up the kitchen) and continue mixing.

Mmm looks and tastes nice. OK I admit it I tried it.

Add the cognac and the rose water.

Add the vanilla sugar and the baking powder. Start adding the flour and continue mixing up to the point where the mixer can handle it.

Time for some manual work. Start with a wooden spoon.

And continue with your hands.

Mix it well. (These are my mother’s hands - she was afraid to use the camera)

Give it some nice karate punches with both hands unless the other hand is holding the camera. Fold the mixture and continue punching.

At this point you should try the dough. Make a small ball and press it with your finger. If it cracks you need more liquids so add some rosewater and continue the karate punches. If it is too soft add some flour. This a soft dough so it should not be as hard as bread for instance.

Also, it is now time to preheat the oven at 150 degrees Celsius.

Cut in almonds in medium size pieces (see photo) and mix them with the rest of the ingredients for the stuffing. 

Now that everything is ready start making the cookies. Make a small ball with your hands.

Press your finger in the middle and put some stuffing in it.

Close the cookie by pressing the sides with your fingers.

Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and place the cookies approximately 2 cm apart. Place them in the oven for approximately 30 min and in the mean time start making the next batch.

Don’t let them become brownish. You can see if there ready when their bottoms take a slight red color.

When they are still warm, place them on an aluminium foil sheet and sprinkle confectioners sugar on them.

And this is to remind us here in Cyprus that we can have white Christmas even without snow.

And this is how much I made in 5 hours. My mother tricked me into making a double dosage.

When the evening came I was ready to moan like a true Cypriot housewife: “Oh my back hurts etc. etc.” At least my mother liked the result and this means that they are actually good. I ate three of them in the process (I had to try). With all thi baking do you think I have burnt the calories?I sure hope so.

Yummy!