Greek Almond Cookies (Kourabiedes)

Kourabiedes are popular Greek cookies, served at major holidays. They normally use a fair bit of butter and sometimes egg yolk, but veganizing them is not terribly difficult. The real magic is the ground nuts, in this case almonds, and a little touch of spirits, in this case, cognac, and those ingredients are all good for vegans.

Now I'm not going to lie to you—the coconut oil and ground almonds conspire to make these little beauties a bit rich. However, I find the flavour contrasts beautifully with most main courses, especially spicy main courses, and one cookie is plenty to top off the meal. They are just sweet enough to be satisfying as a dessert, but they don't hit you over the head with sweetness. I hope you enjoy them.

Ingredients

3/4 cup refined coconut oil (don't use "virgin" coconut oil or they will taste like mini-coconuts)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp brandy (e.g., cognac)

1/4 cup icing sugar, plus 1/2 cup for dusting

1 cup flour

1 cup almond meal (usually available in bulk stores)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat coconut oil until fluffy.

Add vanilla and brandy and beat again.

Do the same for the 1/4 cup icing sugar.

Add flour and almond meal, mixing with a wooden spoon, and then by hand, just until the dough comes together. Don't overmix.

Use a small scoop to make roughly 1 Tbl sized balls, rounded between your palms. Lay the cookies out on the parchment. (There should be about 16 of them.)

Bake 13-15 minutes, until very lightly browned on top.

When completely cool, place in a container with a lid and refrigerate for a couple of hours (so the cookies get nice and solid). Then, dump in the remaining 1/2 cup icing sugar, and gently rotate the container to coat the cookies in sugar.

Because coconut oil melts not too much higher than room temperature, it is probably best to store these in the fridge so they don't get gritty. Enjoy!

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Posted: Thursday, May 5, 2016