Koulourakia

By TheKitchenQueen

Recipe from Organically Cooked

Ingredients

• 250 g butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks (free-range eggs give that extra yellow colour)
• grated zest of an orange
• 1/4 cup orange juice (you can use milk here, as the recipe states, but as we have our own oranges in our own fields, we use them, and the smell of orange-flavoured cookies will scent your kitchen beautifully)
• 1 vial of vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon cognac (brandy)
• 4 cups 'strong' flour (the kind used to make pie pastry, as opposed to 'soft' flour, used in cakes)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• extra egg yolk for glazing the cookies

Preparation

Step 1

Cream the butter and sugar, add the yolks, rind, vanilla and brandy and beat well. Add the flour and then the liquid, mixing with floured hands to form a stiff dough. Break off small pieces and roll them out into the traditional biscuit shapes that Greek housewives and bakers have been crafting over the years. Place them on a lightly greased baking tin. Brush them with beaten yolk mixed with a tablespoon of water. Bake in a moderate oven for about twenty minutes.