Kourabiedes are these amazing Greek biscuits which are a Christmas favourite. Light, crumbly almond shortbread coated in a liberal layer of icing sugar. They're incredibly simple, incredibly tasty and incredibly moreish. The almond saves them from being like your average sickly buttery Highland shortcake, and turns them into something absolutely delectable.
(The word 'delectable' definitely isn't used enough these days!)
You will need these things,
8 oz butter/margarine
4 oz icing sugar (caster sugar is ok though)
2 egg yolks
10 oz plain flour
6-8 oz ground almonds
a generous tsp almond extract
half tsp vanilla extract
cloves (a festive option)
to do the following:
Beat the butter in a bowl until it's soft and easy to work with.
Gradually beat in the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Beat in the two egg yolks.
Add the almond essence and vanilla essence.
Mix in the flour and almonds, bit by bit. You'll think 'it's going to be too dry!' but it will come together eventually.
Once the mixture is dough-like, form into crescents by rolling balls into sausages and pinching and bending the ends. It's up to you how big you want them - remember they get a bit bigger in the oven, but the shortbread texture is more enjoyable in a bigger sized crescent rather than just a 'bite'. Ideally this recipe makes around 20-24.
Put the crescents onto a well greased tray and bake at 190 degrees celsius for around 15 minutes until the bottoms start to turn golden brown. Keep an eye on them!
Let them cool (after inevitably burning your tongue on an impatient taster), then roll them in lots of icing sugar.
Now put your willpower to the almighty test: resisting the temptation to scoff the lot in one go.
