Kourabiedes

The story

Kourabiedes are almond butter cookies showered with powdered sugar, so thickly that every bite leaves a white trace on fingers and lips. In structure and tenderness they recall related butter cookies across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, from Spanish polvorones to Middle Eastern ma'amoul, all linked by a shared emphasis on butter or clarified butter, ground nuts, and a minimum of binder. In many Greek families kourabiedes are shaped into crescents or small balls, and a single whole clove is sometimes pressed into the center of each — a detail for which there are several interpretations, from the practical (aroma) to the symbolic, though none is universally accepted as the definitive explanation. The powdered sugar goes on in a thick layer while the cookies are still warm, so that it partly melts into a smooth white crust. For Greek families in the diaspora, kourabiedes are often served on the same plate as melomakarona, a pairing of white cookie and honey cookie that together stand for the Greek Christmas table.