Koulourakia are a favorite cookie among Greeks! It’s likely the first one you helped your mom shape as a kid with your little hands. It’s a delicious butter cookie.
Now did you know that you can play around with the classic flavor and make something different? I was inspired by my good friend, Chef Krystina from Kouzounas Kitchen who infused hers with Greek coffee. Here is the link to her cookies.
https://kouzounaskitchen.com/2021/04/24/koulourakia-infused-with-greek-coffee/
I kicked it up a notch and added cocoa powder to the coffee paste, while having infused orange zest & juice, cinnamon & cardamom, & brandy to the whole cookie dough mixture.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup or 1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of granulated sugar
Juice & zest of 2 oranges (1/4 cup juice)
1 shot of brandy or cognac
2 eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
3 cups of all-purpose flour plus more for dusting a work surface
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Egg wash ( 1 egg and a few tablespoons of water)
Greek Coffee cocoa paste:
2 tbsp Greek coffee
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp water
Directions:
Make the paste & set it aside.
In a large bowl, zest the oranges & massage the zest and sugar together. This releases essential oils into the sugar & makes your baked goods more fragrant. Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs, orange juice, brandy, vanilla, cinnamon, and cardamom. Beat everything together till combined.
Divide in half and separate into a second bowl, along with the coffee paste. Mix that together. Now you have two bowls with two flavors.
I added 2 tbsp of flour to the one with the coffee paste.
I separated the two doughs onto a sheet of plastic wrap, covered them and let them rest for 30 minutes.
I kept some flour in a container on the side of my workspace to help me roll them out piece by piece. Take two small pieces of each. Roll each one into a log and combine them any way you like. Twists, braids, swirls. Have fun with the shapes.
Egg wash them.
Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes till golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan then transfer them to a cooling rack.
Kali Oreksi!
on xenia street 