| 1 | Beat the butter with the sugar until it becomes fluffy. |
| 2 | Add the egg yolks one by one, beating continuously. |
| 3 | Add the brandy and vanilla. |
| 4 | Blend in the almonds and the flour, a cup at a time. |
| 5 | Use enough flour to get a firm dough (it may take a bit more or less than the amount mentioned in the ingredients list). |
| 6 | Use your hands to do the mixing, as an electric mixer will be useless after the first two or three cups of flour have been added. |
| 7 | Place the dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour. |
| 8 | Shape the dough into balls, about one inch in diameter, flatten them and place on greased cookie sheets. |
| 9 | Bake at 350 °F. |
| 10 | For 20 minutes. |
| 11 | Remove from the oven. |
| 12 | Roll each cookie (while it is still hot) in the powdered sugar and put it back on the cookie sheet. |
| 13 | Repeat this step once more, so that you get a thicker coating. |
| 14 | Place the coated cookies on a platter, liberally sprinkling each layer and the bottom of the platter with powdered sugar. |
| 15 | When you are done, there shouldn"t be any sugar left. |
| 16 | Let them cool and they are ready to eat! notes: * traditional greek christmas cookies coated with powdered sugar -- this is one of the two kinds of confection that are traditionally consumed in large quantities in greece during the holiday season (the other is melomacarona). |
| 17 | As a quick lesson in greek, "kourabiedes" (pronounced "kou-ra-bi-eth-es", is the plural of the word "kourabies" (kou-ra-bi-es). |
| 18 | Now all you need to enjoy them is the recipe. |
| 19 | I got this one from a greek cookbook and translated it into english. |
| 20 | * the cookbook suggests the following variations: using ouzo or scotch instead of brandy, and almond extract instead of vanilla extract, but i have not tried any of them. |
| 21 | Also, putting granulated instead of powdered sugar in the dough didn"t seem to affect the recipe, there"s so much sugar in it, that you couldn"t tell the difference anyway. |
| 22 | * the cookbook also suggested using twice the amount of sugar for coating. |
| 23 | This is obviously too much, but it should make you realize that you must really be liberal with the sugar! : difficulty: easy to moderate. |
| 24 | : time: 30 minutes preparation, one hour refrigeration, 20 minutes baking. |
| 25 | : precision: approximate measurement ok. |
