Navigate to Food section

Ghoribiya (Egyptian Butter Cookies)

May 07, 2024
Ghoribiya (Egyptian Butter Cookies)

Jamie Batesh Carter

From My Life in Recipes by Joan Nathan. Copyright © 2024 by Joan Nathan. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

So many cultures have their version of ghoribiya, shortbread-like butter cookies sometimes made with crushed almonds, which literally melt in your mouth. Through the years, I’ve noticed similar confections: when I visited the Greek Orthodox archbishop in Jerusalem and tasted their
kourambiedes; at Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek’s home, where the signature baked good prepared by his wife, Tamar, was Viennese kupferlin (almond crescent cookies); the Moroccan ghouribi, also with almonds; and polvorones (from Mexico and Spain), which are quickly becoming part of American culture. Fortunately, I was able to track down Madame Baghdadi’s son, who shared this beloved recipe with me.

Ingredients

  • 1cup (2 sticks / 226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, or 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1cup (114 grams) confectioners’ sugar
  • 1cup (100 grams) almond flour
  • 2cups (250 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • Pinch salt
  • 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • About 20 blanched almonds, split in half (may also use pine nuts)
Yield: About 36 cookies

Preparation

  • Step 1

    Beat the butter and sugar until smooth in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, about 3 minutes. Add the almond flour, all- purpose flour, salt, and cinnamon, and mix on low speed for about 3 minutes, until the dough is like moist sand and sticks together when pinched. Refrigerate it for 30 minutes.

  • Step 2

    Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and roll the dough into little mounds the size of Ping-Pong balls, and place them on the baking sheets. Press an almond half or a pine nut into the center of each ball. Bake the cookies until they’re firm to the touch but still white, 17 to 20 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheets.