Cyprus Almond Shortbread (Kourabiedes)

“Kourabiedes” are another Christmas classic in a Cypriot kitchen. They make their appearance every December, and usually disappear within a week (at least when I am around). Even our childhood parrot would call “cookie” when he saw my mom making these cookies. The recipe is pretty straightforward. I have included lots of pictures below, partly because one of the “tricks” to this recipe is knowing when your dough is ready.

The dough is ready when it no longer sticks to your hands. So the six cups of flour below is more like a ball-park measurement than anything else. You need to add ½ cup at a time, and once you see that your dough resembles the dough in the picture below (see recipe), you are ready to move on. Traditionally, “kourabiedes” are shaped into half crescent moon shapes, or the card shape of “spades” or “clubs”. I don’t actually see why “kourabiedes” can’t be shaped into other Christmas shapes such as snowflakes, stars and bells, so I simply just rolled out the dough and used cookie cutters to make shapes. This was pretty fun, and also a lot faster than shaping the dough using my hands. Once the cookies have been cooked, it is always important to let them cool, otherwise your icing sugar will melt onto the top of the cookies. That’s about it. They are a delicious nutty (literally) version of shortbread, and go perfectly coffee and tea. Definitely worth making, not just around Christmas!