Kourambiethes — The Recipe and the Women Who Made It Before You

Last week of February. March tomorrow and the sixth anniversary of Marcus's death in six weeks. I approach it now the way I approach the beginning of a familiar trail: I know the terrain. I know where it is hard. I know the places I have stumbled and learned to walk differently. I am not afraid of the trail. I am respectful of it.

Caleb is six months and two weeks old. He is sitting up with support now and eating sweet potato puree twice a week and making sounds that are organizing themselves toward language. CJ says he said something last week that could have been "da" or could have been a random consonant. I told CJ to lean toward attribution. He said, I know, I already did. He said it to Shanice with enormous pride and Shanice said, it was probably a vowel, and CJ said it definitely was not. This is the particular joy of watching a child from one step back: you get the comedy of it along with the tenderness.

I made a batch of Bernice's cast iron cornbread on Sunday just for myself and ate it with butter and honey and a cup of coffee at the kitchen table in the late morning with nothing else planned. This is a luxury I have earned and I am taking it without apology. Fifty-four years old, almost fifty-five, with a grandchild who will sit at this table in a few years and receive cornbread from these hands, and all the women before me who made this recipe in their own cast iron and their own kitchens — the whole chain of it visible from this seat at this table. Good coffee. Good cornbread. Good morning. The kitchen holds all of this without being asked. It always has.

The cornbread was Bernice’s, and the cast iron was hers too, and I have been thinking since Sunday about what it means to make something with your hands that women before you also made with theirs — the way a recipe is less a set of instructions than a kind of inheritance. Kourambiethes are that kind of recipe for me: Greek butter cookies my neighbor Elsa pressed into my hands on an index card thirty years ago, and that I have since pressed into other hands. They ask nothing of you but patience and butter and a willingness to be generous with the powdered sugar. They go beautifully with good coffee. They belong on a quiet morning at the kitchen table, which is exactly where I will be eating mine.

Kourambiethes

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted, plus 2 cups more for rolling
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon brandy or fresh orange juice
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped toasted almonds (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cream the butter. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter on medium speed for 3–4 minutes until very light and fluffy. Add the 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar and continue beating another 2 minutes until pale and airy.
3. Add wet ingredients. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time, then add the vanilla extract and brandy (or orange juice), beating until fully combined.
4. Incorporate the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the butter mixture in two additions, mixing on low just until a soft dough forms. Fold in the chopped almonds if using. Do not overmix.
5. Shape the cookies. Roll tablespoon-sized portions of dough between your palms into smooth balls or shape them into small crescents. Place about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
6. Bake. Bake for 18–20 minutes, until the bottoms are just barely golden and the tops remain pale. They should not brown. Watch them closely in the last few minutes.
7. First sugar coat. While the cookies are still warm (but cool enough to handle, about 5 minutes out of the oven), gently roll each one in powdered sugar until well coated. Set on a wire rack.
8. Second sugar coat. Once the cookies have cooled completely, roll them a second time in powdered sugar for a generous, snowy finish. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks — they improve after a day.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 118 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 15g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 22mg