What's Cooking with the Greeks: Kourambiethes Receipe

As printed in "What's Cooking with the Greeks II, Millennium Edition"

These exquisite cookies, always blanketed with powdered confectioners' sugar like fresh snowfall, appear at all christenings, namedays, holidays, weddings, and any other festive occasion. The texture is smooth as ice cream and the cookie melts in one's mouth. They improve with age, but it is difficult to keep them away for from eager hands. Next to baklava, this is the most popular Greek dessert.

	1 Lbs sweet butter or clarified butter
	1 egg yolk
	¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
	¼ cup orange juice
	1 oz. Brandy, whiskey or ouzo (optional)
	3 ¾ cup flour
	½ cup cornstarch
	¼ cup ground almonds (optional)
	Whole cloves or cassia buds for garnish (optional)
	1 – 1 lb box confectioners’ sugar for topping

Allow sweet butter to soften to room temperature. Beat with electric mixer for 10 minutes, until white and creamy. Add sugar, egg yolk, orange juice and brandy, beating all the while, until thick and mayonnaise. Sift flour and cornstarch into bowl and continue mixing. Finish by kneading for 5 minutes. Add nuts last. Pinch off a small piece of dough. (If dough is too soft to work with, do not add more flour. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.) Shape dough into crescents for Turkish style, or into small balls, but do not press down or make them flat. This cookie does not rise during baking. (Greek baker’s shortcut: roll dough into round log and cut diagonally into ½ inch thick slices.) Place on ungreased cookie sheet, ½ inch apart. Stick a while clove or cassia bud in center of each one. Bake in preheated oven at 350^o for 25 minutes.