Hello friends! I hope everyone is doing well. I wanted to share a sweet recipe this week. It is not very often I bake, but I wanted to switch things up a bit. I made koulourakia, which are typically made around Greek Easter. These are also one of my favorite greek cookies. I have so many fond memories enjoying them when I was little and watching my yia yia (grandma) make them. The recipe I used for these koulourakia are from Chef Krystina Kalapothakos’ cookbook, A Drop of Ladi and My Greek Soul. These greek cookies were very good! What I loved about this particular recipe was how both lemon and orange are incorporated. Being that I love citrus, I really enjoyed tasting the lemon and orange in every bite.

Koulourakia

Yields: 45 cookies

Ingredients

1-1/2 cup butter

6 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk

2 cups sugar

6 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Juice 1/2 lemon

Juice 1/2 orange

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon lemon/orange zest

Directions

Beat butter and sugar adding eggs one at a time. Beat until smooth and sugar has dissolved completely. Mix baking powder and baking soda with 2 cups of flour and blend. Add remaining ingredients- do not add all of the flour all at once. Make sure your dough is soft, elastic and not sticking to your fingers. Place the dough in a bowl and cover for about 30 minutes. Take a small piece of dough and form into either an S shape or O shape. I shaped the majority of my koulourakia into braids, by overlapping the two pieces of the dough. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat 1 egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water and brush cookies. Place cookies on middle rack of oven. Bake between 25-30 mins, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. **Store in an air tight container**

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