Kourabiedes are the Greek butter cookies that leave a snowfall of powdered sugar all over your sweater ! They’re tender, crumbly, packed with toasted almonds, and so buttery they melt the moment you bite in.

This recipe is built on years of testing and on the method of the great Greek pastry chef Stelios Parliaros: ghee and a long, patient beating of the butter and sugar. That’s the secret to the light, fluffy texture you find in the best Greek pastry shops.

I’ve been eating kourabiedes since I was a child, and like every Greek, I still can’t eat one without powdered sugar ending up on my nose.

If you love these, you’ll also love Melomakarona – Greek Christmas Honey Cookies and Trigona – Almond Pastry Triangles. For the whole holiday table, see my Greek Christmas Food guide.

A bowl of homemade kourabiedes with two cookies on the table in front

Overview

What are kourabiedes?

Kourabiedes (κουραμπιέδες, pronounced koo-rah-bee-EH-thes) are traditional Greek butter cookies made with toasted almonds and finished with a thick coat of powdered sugar. One cookie is a kourabies. You’ll also see the name spelled kourambiedes or kourabiethes. All three are the same cookie.

They’re shortbread-like, but lighter. The butter and sugar are beaten for a long time until almost white, which gives kourabiedes their signature crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture. Along with melomakarona, they’re the two cookies every Greek expects to see at Christmas.

The name comes from the Turkish kurabiye. The cookie traveled across Asia Minor and Constantinople long before it became a Greek Christmas staple. It took root in Greece with the Greeks of Asia Minor after 1922. Today, the most famous kourabiedes in Greece come from Nea Karvali, near Kavala. Refugees from Karvali in Cappadocia founded the village in 1924, bringing their recipe with them.

In Greece, kourabiedes fill pastry shop windows from November through Epiphany. They’re also the cookie of joyful occasions all year: they’re handed out at weddings and baptisms, their snowy white sugar a wish for a sweet, happy life. That’s why you’ll sometimes hear them called Greek wedding cookies.

Here is what you need

Ingredients for kourabiedes on a butcher block: ghee, almonds, powdered sugar, flour, rum, nutmeg, vanilla and baking powder

Ghee. Ghee or clarified butter, softened to room temperature. It’s what gives kourabiedes their clean, rich flavor and crumbly texture. Unsalted butter works too.
Unpeeled whole almonds. They’ll roast and then grind into medium-large pieces.
Dark rum or Amaretto Disaronno. Amaretto is a sweet almond liqueur, great for kourabiedes.
Ground nutmeg. I love grinding my nutmeg from the seed. Nutmeg gives kourabiedes a perfect aroma.
Powdered sugar. Powdered (confectioners’) sugar, for the dough and plenty more for coating the cookies.
Unbleached all-purpose flour.
Vanilla extract.
Baking powder.
Rose water. Sprinkle a touch of rose water over the cookies before rolling them in the icing sugar. Leaves a faint, beautiful aroma. Optional, not shown in the ingredients photo.

Step by step

Roast the almonds. Preheat the oven to 320°F / 160°C. Spread the almonds on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes, until deep golden. Let them cool completely, then pulse in a food processor into coarse pieces, or crush with a mortar and pestle.

Whole almonds on a baking sheet and roasted almonds crushed into coarse pieces for kourabiedes

Beat the ghee and sugar. Raise the oven to 340°F / 170°C. Using the whisk attachment, beat the ghee with 110 g powdered sugar on high speed for about 20 minutes, until very pale and fluffy.
Add the dry ingredients. Lower the speed. Gradually add the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and vanilla, then keep beating on low for 10 minutes, until the mixture is a white, fluffy cream.
Fold in the almonds and rum. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the cooled almonds and the rum by hand. The almonds must be cool, or the dough will tighten.
Rest the dough. Cover and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. This makes it easier to shape.
Shape. Roll the dough into balls about 1½ inches across. Press each one lightly on top with your finger and set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Shaped kourabiedes on a parchment-lined baking sheet in the oven

Bake. Bake for 20–30 minutes, depending on size, until set but still pale. They should not brown.
Cool completely. Let the cookies cool on the sheet. If using rose water, spray or sprinkle them lightly.
Coat. Put the coating sugar in a large bowl. Roll the cooled cookies in it, covering them generously, then pile onto a platter. For the classic Greek look, stack them in a pyramid and dust each layer with more sugar.

Kourabiedes Greek butter cookies in powdered sugar, two broken open to show the almond-studded crumb

Tips for the fluffiest kourabiedes

The fluffier and creamier the butter mixture, the fluffier the cookies.
Whipping the butter with the sugar requires high speed. But as soon as we start adding flour gradually, the speed needs to be low to avoid ruining the fluffy texture of the butter-and-sugar mixture.
Kourabiedes are baked at a low temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. They should come out of the oven with a light color and without a hard texture.
Dust the cookies with powdered sugar only once they’re completely cool. If they’re still warm, the sugar melts into a thick, pasty layer.
The almonds need to be cool when added to the dough. Otherwise, the dough will tighten significantly.
The dough should be soft, buttery, and pliable. Allow the dough to rest covered for 20 minutes. This will make the cookies easier to shape.
It is not recommended to cut the cookies with a cookie cutter. It is better to shape them by hand due to the almond pieces. You can skip the almonds and use cookie cutters to shape them into stars, hearts, etc.

Storage and leftovers

Kourabiedes soak up moisture fast, so keep them covered whenever they’re not on the table.

Room temperature: store in an airtight tin or container in a cool, dry place. They keep for about 2 weeks. Put parchment between the layers so they don’t rub against each other.
The old-fashioned way: a reader shared how her mother stored them, buried in powdered sugar. Spread a thin bed of sugar in a tin, add a layer of cookies, cover with more sugar, and repeat. The sugar sweetens and protects them.

Kourabiedes FAQ

Yes. Use unsalted butter at room temperature. Ghee gives a slightly more crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture, but butter makes lovely kourabiedes too.

Yes you can. Without them, you can even cut the dough into stars or hearts with cookie cutters.

That’s a good sign. A slight crack means the dough was beaten light and fluffy, which is exactly the melt-in-your-mouth texture you want.

Some families press a whole clove into each cookie before baking, a custom you see in parts of the Greek diaspora. It isn’t common in Greece today. If you try it, remind guests to remove the clove before eating.