Kourambiethes

January 1, 2015

There’s the kind of beach sand that is brownish and littered with rocks and debris. Then there’s the kind that is heavy and dark that has small pebbles and is always wet. Then there’s the kind of soft white sand that glimmers in the sun; is clean and granulated, and is the sand you want to spend your last dying day on. So, using this metaphor to describe the Kourambiethes, they would definitely fall under the category of the-sand-of-all-sand cookies, as they reign supreme. They must have gone to Marilyn Monroe Charm School and learned the art of seduction as it would make the hardest of hearts fall desperately in love. Kourambiethes are the whitest, lightest and crunchiest sand cookies I’ve ever tasted, no less made myself. I am smitten and disarmed by these look-like-nothing to-die-for cookies.

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Ingredients

Volume Grams Ounces

Instructions

CLARIFYING THE BUTTER

For me, this was a lot of butter to clarify at one time. I was waiting for the solids underneath to become a bit brown so I could see them, but then I realized, I’m not browning butter, I’m clarifying it. Once the foam dissipated and I could see underneath, I poured off the clear stuff, and left all that milky white sediment behind. I’m not sure if I did it properly, but the butter sure looked bright and clear when it cooled.

There is still some of the milky white sediment on the top. Is this correct?

Then there was the question of how much butter should I have remained after clarification to make the cookies. The recipe didn’t specify, so I just used what I had.

TOAST THE ALMONDS

Good.

MAKE THE COOKIE DOUGH

I’ve never seen the technique of clarifying butter and beating it with powdered sugar for 10 minutes.

Finished, the dough was too sticky to shape as is, so it definitely had to be firmed up, but I could see that chilling it for too long or leaving it overnight would create a problem in the other direction. Needed to stick with it and not leave it for tomorrow.

I also wanted a more uniform cookie so I pulled out a small glass and used it press down the cookie into a 2 inch diameter, as the book called for. This gave them a clean, well shaped look.

BAKE THE COOKIES

The baking time was dead-nuts on for the most part. My gage for testing if they were done was to brush my finger over the top to feel for a sandy dry texture. I just wanted to make sure the cookies was baked all the way so they could be as sandy as possible. Sandy, sandy, sandy is the order of the day!

If you look hard enough, you can see they’re sandy.

COOL THE COOKIES

Hard to do.

DUST THE COOKIES WITH POWDERED SUGAR

Here I found that I didn’t want to cake the cookies with powdered sugar. I just wanted a simple spray and let the texture shine.

STORING THE COOKIES

HA! That’s a joke.

Levy Beranbaum’s newly published The Baking Bible. Each week we post our experiences on our blog sites: our successes, our failures, our like and dislikes. The recipes are scheduled in advance so that everyone is baking the same recipe at the same time. No recipes can be shared in my Alpha Bakers The Baking Bible posts due to publishing restrictions enforced by the publisher, but if you love to bake, this is a must-have book. You can see other tutorials for the same recipe at the following link The Baking Bible Alpha Bakers at http://rosesalphabakers.blogspot.ca/.