Easter cookies (koulourakia). Greek Koulourakia recipe - A delicious Greek Easter tradition. As most holidays in Greece revolve around food, Greek Easter is no exception! These are the days when households are preparing delicious meals for the Easter Sunday and making all these delicious traditional Greek recipes, like lamb, kontosouvli, magiritsa, dyed Greek Easter eggs, tsoureki and of course these amazing Greek Easter. Easter Greek Cookies also know as Koulourakia are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. They are traditionally made around Easter but also perfect for a church day and festival.

With Easter around the corner, these beautiful and delicious cookies are a must try! And like in every Greek celebration, big carafes of wine are on the table. And right in the center, you find a basket filled with the Greek Koulourakia (these Greek Easter cookies recipe), "Tsoureki" and red-dyed eggs. You can cook Easter cookies (koulourakia) using 11 ingredients and 4 steps. Here is how you cook it.

Ingredients of Easter cookies (koulourakia)

You need 2 cups of sugar.
You need 4 of eggs.
Prepare 250 g of butter.
You need 1/2 cup of milk.
It's 1/2 cup of orange juice.
It's of grated zest of one orange.
It's 1 kg of flour.
You need 4 tsp of baking powder.
You need 2 tsp of vanilla essence.
You need 1/2 tsp of soda.
It's 1/2 tsp of salt.

Already waiting, to treat every guest that comes to say "Xronia Polla", in this case, it translates to "Happy Easter". Koulourakia are traditional Greek cookies which along with tsourekia are the "trademark" of Greek Orthodox Easter. The week before Easter every family ( or almost every family nowadays) is preparing koulourakia and tsourekia and this is a way of getting in the mood of these Holy days. Koulourakia are a traditional Greek cookie, typically made the week of Easter, to be eaten after Holy Saturday.

Easter cookies (koulourakia) step by step

Cream butter and sugar..
Add the eggs, one at a time, and then add the milk, the orange juice and the zest..
In another bowl, combine all solid ingredients with half of the flour and then pour the flour mixture in the butter mixture. Add as much flour as it is needed, so as to have a soft, non-sticky dough..
Let the dough rest for 15 minutes, then shape the cookies as desired and bake them, 180°C for 10 to 20 minutes (it depends on their size)..

They are a butter-based cookie, and are hand-shaped in a variety of designs, topped with an egg wash, and sometimes sprinkled with sesame seeds. They are most commonly infused with orange and vanilla flavors. Shape as desired and brush with egg and milk mixture. If Italian biscotti were to have a dainty, Greek cousin, it would be koulourakia. These finger-sized, Greek cookies are traditionally made on Holy Saturday, so that they are ready to be eaten come Easter Sunday morning.