happy kourambiedes

I made my first Greek cookies one December, maybe five years ago, with my friend Joanna and her father, Peter. Joanna mixed the ingredients for Koulourakias as her father instructed her using his memories of her mother's recipe. We all shared the responsibility of forming the cookies, placing them on the sheets and baking them. This is a moment in my life that makes me smile. A 90-year-old Greek father, born on the tiny island of Oinousses, now living in the US so many years later, sharing traditions with his daughter.

I haven't made a Greek cookie in the five years since, until recently, when Joanna and I visited the kitchen of St. Elizabeth's Greek Orthodox Church to help make Kourambiedes for their upcoming bake sale. A Kourambiede is not a Koulourakia by any means; a Kourambiede is like an Italian wedding cookie, a dense sugar cookie with walnuts, dossed in powdered sugar. A Koulourakia is similar but does not have a powdered sugar coating -instead it is glazed with egg yolk and then sprinkled with sesame seeds. Mmmmmm!

Joanna and I were there to help roll the dough into cookies. We joined Carol and Jennifer who are part of Philoptochos (Friends of the Poor). Philoptochos is a charitable group; proceeds from the bake sale will support the national organization as well as Gainesville charities. In the past money has gone to support local programs providing coats and blankets for families-in-need, as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas Food Baskets.

Carol and Jennifer bake year-round for the church. When they aren't baking for the holiday sale, they, and other Philoptochos members, share the responsibility of baking the Prosphoro (communion bread).Rolling many dozens of cookies was quick work when tackled by the four of us; we were so immersed in our conversations that the dough ran out well before the stories did.