These are a traditional Greek egg and butter based cookie flavored with vanilla and orange. They are typically served on Greek Easter but because of their popularity they are made year round. There are so many variations of the recipe. I’ve seen cream or half and half substituted for the milk, some melt the butter first or substitute olive oil, some add lemon instead of orange flavors, some omit both and just use the vanilla as the flavor. Some add sesame seeds on top of the egg wash just before baking. Try all variations and see which you prefer the most. Let me know how you do it so I can try it too. I love learning new ways to try.
Koulourakia
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla
Zest of 2 oranges
1 Tbsp. orange blossom water (optional – if using lemon instead of orange omit this)
1 ½ Tbsps. baking powder
½ cup milk
4-6 cups all-purpose flour
Sesame seeds (optional)
Egg wash:
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until creamy and the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times to ensure everything is mixed.
Add the eggs, one at a time allowing each egg to be incorporated before adding the next one. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything is mixed. Then one at a time, add the vanilla, orange zest and orange blossom water allowing time for each to be well blended before adding the next ingredient. Warm the milk to a lukewarm temperature (15-30 seconds in the microwave works for me) then add the baking soda and stir until frothy. (My mom would add these 2 together sometimes and other times she added them separately into the dough. I showed the combined method but either way works). Add to the dough and combine until evenly blended. (If the dough looks a little curdled or lumpy don’t worry, it will tighten up with the addition of the flour).
Put the mixer on low speed add the flour a cup at a time until its combined and the dough doesn’t stick to your fingertips. This all depends on the humidity level of your kitchen. (Sometimes I’ve used 4 ½ cups flour, other times it’s been 5 ½ cups). Place the dough in the refrigerator to chill for 20-30 minutes.
To form the cookies, take a piece of dough and roll it in your hand to form the shape and size of a golf ball then roll it out to a 6-7 inch long strip. Form any desired shape you like such as the traditional twist and S shape or into braids or rings. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet about 1 ½ inches apart.
Mix the egg yolks and water in a small bowl and brush the tops of the cookies with the egg wash just before baking. Bake in the center rack position about 15-18 minutes or until the cookies turn a golden color and begin to brown slightly underneath. (A good rule is check the first batch of cookies after 15 minutes and then again every couple minutes until they reach that golden color, that way you know how long to bake the remaining batches. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container for a week or two. You can freeze the cookies just make sure they are completely cooled and in a freezer proof container/bag. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
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Hi guys hope you all had a great holiday today is the day after Christmas and it is also my mom’s birthday and we had a tradition every year we would get together and we would bake cookies or whatever and then afterwards we’d make some Greek coffee and enjoy the fruits
Of our labor while sitting around the dining room table and just catching up and laughing together so in honor of her third Heavenly birthday I am reposting the video that I shot earlier this year where I showed you guys how to make guraka a Greek egg and butter cookie and
This is one of the cookies that we used to make all the time it’s one of my favorites and I hope you guys enjoy it hi guys today I’m going to show you how to make one of my all-time favorite cookies guraka guraka are Greek egg and butter based cookies with little hints
Of vanilla and orange they are traditionally served around Easter but nowadays you can pretty much find them all the time they are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside they go great with coffee or tea and they are just one of my favorites they’re so delicious my grandmother taught my mom
How to make them my mom taught me and today I’m going to show you so let’s get to it here’s everything you’re going to need to make these amazing cookies two sticks of butter at room temperature a cup and a half of sugar four eggs the
Zest of two oranges a half a cup of milk a tablespoon and a half of baking powder a tablespoon of vanilla 4 to six cups of flour depending on the humidity in your kitchen and last but not least orange blossom water okay let’s get baking in a mixing bowl combine the
Butter and sugar and beat on medium speed for 10 to 15 minutes until the butter is creamy and fluffy while the butter and sugar are mixing you want to heat your milk until it’s lukewarm and then add the baking powder to it stirring gently and be careful because it will foam
Up next you want to add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time to allow each egg to be incorporated next you want to add the vanilla extract orange zest and milk with baking powder to your dough and mix until thoroughly combined make sure you scrape down the
Sides of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly Incorporated with the mixer on low speed you’ll want to add the flour one cup at a time until the dough is soft and not too sticky see how it’s not sticking to your fingers this is going to be perfect
After the flour has been fully incorporated into into the dough place it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to chill and rest okay so while the dough is chilling I’m going to clean up and prep my baking sheets I’m going to line them with parchment paper because the cookies will
Not stick and it makes clean up even easier all you do is just toss away the parchment paper Okay kitchen’s all clean the dough is chilled the baking sheets are prepped we are ready to make some cookies let’s go over to the counter and I’ll show you how I roll them
Out okay so what you want to do is take a piece of dough the size of a golf ball roll it in your hands then put it on the counter roll it out to about 6 or 7 in long then take one end cross it over
Over the other and then just twist it over and there you have it okay if you want to make the S shape take a piece of dough roll it in your hand roll it out on the counter to about 7 in you don’t have to measure and then you just start rolling each
End and there you have the S couple of things I did want to tell you guys is um I did preheat the oven to 400° when I took the dough out of the refrigerator and that this this uh recipe makes about a little over 4 and 1/2 dozen cookies depending on how big
You make them or how small if if you want to make more if you want more cookies per batch just uh use a little bit smaller dough per cookie and once these are all shaped we are going to brush them with an egg wash and bake
Them also if you’re not as fast or it takes you a little bit longer to roll out each cookie and you find that your dough is starting to warm up you can put put it back in the refrigerator for 15 20 minutes to cool it down and then just
Pull it back out and just start reshaping them it’ll probably be a little easier cuz once this dough warms up it does tend to get a little sticky again okay I’m going to continue rolling them Out Okay guys here they are it made four dozen cookies I had a little bit left over so I made shoy a few too because he loves these okay so what we’re going to do now is we’re going to brush them with an egg wash I’ve got two egg yolks and a
Tablespoon of water mixed together and I’m going to use my pastry brush and we’re just going to brush them all put them in the oven 15 minutes and they’ll be done E Okay into the oven 15 minutes and then onto a cooling rack and they’re all done here they are they have a nice golden color to them don’t they look delicious ious now I did want to show you one thing this is the reason why we put egg wash on them I
Accidentally missed one and you can see the difference between the two it looks so naked so the recipe did make about a four dozen uh there’s just shy of four dozen here because we may have sampled some but these are just a real delicious uh not a super sweet
Cookie but they are packed with flavor let me just show you they have a nice golden color on the top they are nice and golden on the bottom they are a little crisp but once you open them they are super soft and you can see the Speckles of orange zest in there
Too and here they are don’t they look delicious all right guys well I guess it’s time to wrap up this video I hope you guys enjoyed it I hope uh it inspires you to go bake and please let me know in the comment section below if
You enjoyed them thanks guys so much and I will see you in the next video bye
1 Comment
Great way to remember and celebrate your mom. Thanks for sharing.