Ouzo & Rose Water Kourambiethes

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ouzo
• 3 teaspoons rose water
• 1 dash vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• powdered sugar, as needed

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350f (330f for convection ovens). beat/whip one stick of butter in an electric mixer until fluffy.
• 2 while the butter is being whipped in the mixer, dry roast a generous half cup of slivered almonds in a pan until they come fragrant. remove from heat. place the toasted almond slivers into a food processor and process until they are nearly a flour. (stop just before you reach flour consistency as the heat will cause the oils in the almond 'flour' to coalesce, which you want to avoid. a course flour is the proper point at which to to stop blending.) place almond flour in a bowl.
• 3 add 1/4 cup sugar to whipped butter and continue to mix. add remaining ingredients: 2 egg whites (or 4 tsps of dry egg + 1/4 cup water), 1 tsp baking powder, 3 tsp ouzo, 3 tsp rose water, dash of vanila extract, 2 cups flour, and almond 'flour.'.
• 4 the result should be just thick enough to handle with your hands after dashing a large spoonful of the mixture with a little flour. form into a rough ball and flatten just slightly. (if the consistency isn't right, go back and add a little flour or water to the cookie dough if necessary to achieve desired consistency.) repeat with each cookie, adding cookies to oiled/buttered cookie sheet. the mixture should make about 12 medium to large sized cookies.
• 5 bake for 15 mins or until the cookies begin forming a slightly golden exterior. after removing from oven, sprinkle with a little (okay, a lot of) powdered sugar.