Intro
These heavenly, crumbly, dusted pieces of pure Christmas spirit are... beyond words. And addictive to the point so that consuming these outside of Christmas season is unthinkable / nearly forbidden (believe me, I tried! - I mean obviously I tried, I am me - but when inquiring in summer about Kourambiedes I would be met with looks of such incredulity as if I was talking Greek to them - or, well, not talking Greek? ehm.. that idiom falls flat on its face in this context but you get my point...).
Ingredients
1 kg goat / sheep butter [has to be goat / sheep, otherwise these are not Kourambiedes, and I wouldn't dare substitute... don't even think about it!]
200 g sugar
200 g almonds, roasted
2 eggs + 3 yolks
3-4 vanilla pods
1 shot of tsipuro / cognac / spirit [here I think there might be a bit of room for deviating from the canon, I tend to be generous with this particular ingredient]
1 sachet baking powder
pinch of salt
1.5 - 2 kg flour [it's an iterative process of adding flour to the mix until it 'feels right', I'm afraid...]
powdered sugar + 1 pod of vanilla for dusting [about enough powder to do some skiing]
Warnings
- Bear in mind, this is a rather involved and time consuming recipe including 24 hrs of pastries 'resting' and next-day dusting.
- Also, for the above amounts you might need 8 baking trays - no kidding! - and the amounts of flat space in your house the size of the plains of Serengeti. I recommend using half the amounts unless you run some industrial operation.
- If you are prone to sugar addiction, proceed at your own risk.
- Let me stress, using any other butter than goat / sheep will earn you Greek Yaya disapproval that rivals no other (for reference on Greek Yaya approval ratings go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pag4i2bAfho&ab_channel=CharlotteOmn%C3%A8s)
Instructions
1. First off, take room-temp butter and put it with sugar in a food processor (or process with hand mixer but that will take a while). Let it mix and mix until gets properly fluffy (for a hand mixer a good 10 - 15 mins?). Add eggs & vanilla, mix, and approximately at a point when you overload your local electricity grid (ok I exaggerate but a couple more minutes) pause to add the spirit - then mix a weeeee bit more just to mix in alcohol ok.
2. Once that's done, mix roughly half the flour with baking powder (unless using self-rising flour!) and pinch of salt, then start adding to the mix gradually - I start by using the sieve, mixing with hand mixer, and repeating till it starts resembling dough; and then I switch to kneading. The desired consistency is loose / crumbly / fluffy dough, the sort you definitely can't roll out with a pin, but you can form balls with your hand.
3. Now that's done, cover bowl with a cloth and let it sit in a cool room for a bit, say 30mins and meantime roast almonds (either halves or chopped) for 5 - 10 mins (just mind they don't get too brown). Let cool, and once cool and dough has had the time to think about life, the universe and everything, add the almonds.
4. To bake the pastries, you'll need to roll them with your hands (see pic for representative size of finished product) into a ball, flatten on a paper-lined baking tray, and make a dimple in the middle with your finger (pic has no dimple because it disappears in baking, but it helps even baking). Bake for 15 - 25 mins (will depend on the oven you have) on 170 - 180 deg. The target is meant to be quite pale as cookies go, again see pic but mind I'm normally happy to let cookies char so that pic is a compromise between my tendencies and the intended delicate-ness of Kourambiedes...
5. The final step happens the next day- first, the baked pastries need to sit (and taunt you with their curves and gentle aroma). Mix icing sugar with vanilla powder in a bowl. Then dip each pastry in the bowl, gently smoosh it round so that it's covered (if you manage to resist consuming in the process, you deserve a medal), and for a final touch and dust the pastries normally through a sieve. Again, pic for an idea below.
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