🍪 Kourabiedes
Kourabiedes are Greek butter cookies made with toasted almonds, scented with rose water and buried under a thick snow of icing sugar. They are very short and crumbly, melting in the mouth with a nutty crunch. Shaped as crescents or rounds, they are baked in large batches for Christmas, weddings and other celebrations.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g butter, softened
- 80 g icing sugar, plus about 200 g for dusting
- 120 g almonds, toasted and chopped
- 450 g wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp rose water
Method
- Beat the butter with 80 g icing sugar for 10 minutes until very pale and fluffy.
- Mix in the almonds, then the flour and baking powder to make a soft dough.
- Shape into 30 crescents or balls and place on lined trays.
- Bake at 170 °C for 20–25 minutes until just pale golden underneath.
- Sprinkle with rose water while warm, then cover thickly with icing sugar once cool.
How to make it lighter
- Shape smaller cookies: half the size, half the calories.
- Shake off the excess icing sugar before eating.
- Keep them for special occasions and count each one before taking another.
History
Kourabiedes belong to a family of butter shortbreads known across the former Ottoman lands, such as ghraybeh in the Levant, and the name is usually traced to the Turkish kurabiye. In Greece they are above all a Christmas sweet, offered alongside honey cookies.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →