These almond cookies (grandma Rosa Greek cookies), so delicate and crunchy, are a MUST for our family during Christmas season.
Questa ricetta è disponibile anche in italiano
Today it would have been my grandmother's 87th birthday and to honour the day I decided to share her most famous Christmas cookie recipe: Paste Greche (Greek Cookies)!
Anyone who has been following me for a while already knows that I rarely talk about my life; today, however, I wanted to make an exception for an important figure who forged and indelibly marked my existence: my beloved grandmother Rosa.
You must know that these candid and crumbly almond cookies were NEVER missing among the roundup of Christmas sweets.
Nonna Rosa used to make them a couple of weeks before Christmas, because apparently they got tastier over time. And I remember that it was very difficult for me to resist the temptation to taste them, but I always patiently waited for his permission for a small sample.
They are my all time favourite cookies. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like all thing cookies but I tend to prefer those that are short and have that irresistible melt-in-the-mouth feature, like these Vegan Lemon Shortbread Cookies or another Italian classic: Canestrelli.
After all these years I have never tried to make them myself, but a couple of weeks ago I literally started craving them, so I asked my mom to send me a picture of her original recipe so I could try veganizing them...
...Well, that was tricky!
And I don't mean substituting ingredients for the vegan version, but literally translating from measurements the original recipe was written, from small coffee cups to a particular spoonful that she used to have! ...Oh dear!
Although challenging, I found it really funny. It made me smile a lot!
Anyway, after a couple of attempts I finally managed to reproduce that magical flavour of my grandma Greek cookies, which until now it only was a distant memory of mine.
I think this was the most beautiful and moving way to remember the person she was, whose absence, after over six years now, is still heavily felt.
How I wish she could have seen me now. Finally happily settled in the United Kingdom, after chasing this dream of mine all my life.
But if you will try and enjoy these Greek cookies even a little, I will feel overjoyed!
So please don't forget to share your thoughts about this recipe if you give it a try.
Grandma ’s Greek Cookies Recipe
Ingredients (makes 40ish cookies):
370 g All Purpose Flour
90 g Almonds
150 g Vegan Butter (or Margarine)
50 g Caster Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 tablespoon Almond Syrup (or Milk)
1 Lemon Zest
2 g Vanilla Sugar
Icing Sugar + Vanilla Sugar for coating
Method:
1. If you’re using skin on almonds, place them in a bowl and pour some boiling water over them, leave them submerged for about 2 minutes. Remove water and peel the almonds by pressing each one between two fingers. Grind almonds in a blender.
2. Melt the butter for 30 seconds at 800W in the microwawe.
3. Add grounded almonds, lemon zest, almond syrup and sugar. Mix until combined. Sieve in flour, baking powder and vanilline.
4. Roughly mix together with a spatula, making sure not to overwork the dough. The dough will and must result pretty crumbly.
5. Preheat the oven at 180° C.
6. Take a portion of dough, place it in the palm of your hand and fist until it holds it shape as shown in the following pictures.
7. Place the cookies on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes.
8. In a bowl combine icing sugar and vanilline.
9. Once cooked and still hot, toss each cookie in the sugar and vanilla powder and arrange on a grill in order to allow them to cool.
10. Store the cookies in a cookie box up to 2 months (if they survive that long!).
Note: it is 100% true that they taste better the more you store them, believe it or not my grandma was right!
I hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you have and you love cookies do not miss these other delicious recipes:
- Cocoa and Ginger Xmas Cookies
- Vegan Whipped Cookies
- Italian Almond Cookies
- Castagnelle Cookies
- Vegan Raspberry Linzer Cookies
- Vegan Canestrelli - Italian Shortbread Cookies
- American Cookies with Oats, Raisin and Cranberry
curly gipsy vegan
Looks delicious!! Will definitely try them 🙂
avegtastefromatoz
Thank you ❤ and please let me know what you think 🤗