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Chocolate Kourabiedes

Chocolate Kourabiedes

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These chocolate kourabiedes are made with buffalo milk butter and cocoa powder and filled with dark chocolate and orange preserve.

Each Christmas, I make a Christmas Cake, Melomakarona and Kourabiedes.  

Instead of making them the same, over and over, I love tweaking my recipes, so I let my imagination run wild and turn them into something different each year.  

If you are looking for the traditional recipes you will find the links to my recipes at the end.

Chocolate Kourabiedes with Buffalo Milk Butter

I made these chocolate kourabiedes back in 2011 but with so many things to do during the holidays I did not post the recipe that year and forgot all about them.  

This year as I was going through my files I discovered them again so I decided to make them again, with a few minor changes.

When I made the Spinach and Mushroom Tart a couple of months ago I used buffalo milk butter and the crust reminded me of kourabiedes.  

Since then, I made up my mind that I would make this year’s kourabiedes with buffalo milk butter.  

The packages I bought this time are 150 grams each.  At the time I bought only two packets as they are quite expensive and added a little bit of Ariston shortening/butter to make the amount I wanted.  I also adjusted the ingredients a little bit.  

As you may see the amount of butter is a little bit more than that in my cookbook and the amount of flour is less as I substituted an amount of flour in order to add the cocoa powder.  

Instead of adding more flour to adjust the amount of more butter,  I added a little bit more almonds.  Those 10 more grams I put them in the food processor with a little bit of flour and ground them into almond meal to cover the difference.

collage making kourabiedes image

The addition of blossom water to wet them is optional.  Use only pure citrus blossom water.  

Whenever I have bought blossom water from Greece it went down the drain because it is chemically produced and not pure blossom water.  

The aroma of pure citrus blossom water is amazing so whenever I go to Cyprus I always bring some along and only use that one in my recipes.

In my cookbook I say 500 grams of icing sugar for sifting on top.  Better more than less!  However, if you sift the sugar gradually coating a small amount of kourabiedes each time,  you can definitely reuse what is leftover to continue with the remaining.

Kourabiedes from my cookbook image

I made a bigger batch in 2011 that’s why you can see some adjustments on the recipe.

Note:  If you cannot find buffalo milk butter, you can substitute it with the same amount of ewe’s milk butter (which is the traditional one used) or cow’s butter. The taste of the final product may be different from the original as each butter has its own distinct flavour.

You will find the recipe at the end of the post.

Chocolate kourabiedes with buffalo milk butter image

My other unconventional Christmas Desserts

Christmas Cake:

I started my Christmas Cake rather late this year, that’s why it’s not ready yet.  

I am still at the stage of waiting for the almost paste to dry a little bit more before I add the final layer.  

This year I am going to attempt and dress it with fondant.  I am not a fondant expert but my first attempt to make it was successful.  Now I will have to see what I can create with the sugar paste.  I will update the post on How to make sugar paste, after the holidays when I find some time.

Sugar paste decoration for Christmas image

What is interesting and different this year is that before the almond paste, instead of adding some jam on the cake, I created a spread using some of my leftover Chestnut and Dulce de Leche Spread, which I mixed with “threpsini”.  

Threpsini (or stafidini) is a spread made with raisins, vegetable fat, glucose and lecithin.  These two spreads combined together resulted into a new spread which tasted amazing.  

It can be used on top or inside cakes, on bread, toast, crepes etc.  

As my chestnut and dulce de leche spread had small lumps of chestnut in it, I pulsed both in a food processor to make the spread creamy.

Melomakarona with Date Walnut Filling and Orange Walnut filling:

The recipe for my melomakarona is again adapted from my cookbook and exactly the same as last year’s Mandarin Melomakarona, with the exception that wherever mandarin is mention, this year it’s all orange.

Melomakarona with dates and Orange image

I made two fillings this year:   I used Spartan Orange Preserve which I finely chopped and combined it with walnuts.

Collage preparing melomakarona image

The second filling is with dates.  Whichever you choose to use, they are both delicious.

Date and Walnut filling

Ingredients:

  • 200 grams dates, stoned (weighed before removing the stone)
  • 1 tablespoons blossom water
  • 1 tbsp orange liqueur
  • 100 grams walnuts, coarsely cut
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • ¼ tablespoon of ground cloves
  • ½ tablespoon of cinnamon
  • 60 grams (about 1 heaped tablespoon) butter or margarine

Directions:

  1. Put the walnuts in a food processor and pulse a couple of times.  Do not powder but coarsely chop them.
  2. Put them in a small pot.
  3. Put the dates in the food processor and add the liquid ingredients, that is the honey, blossom water and orange liqueur which will help to cut the dates into smaller pieces.
  4. Add them to the pot and combine with the remaining ingredients
  5. Cook until the butter melts, for 1 – 2 minutes mixing until all the ingredients are combined.
  6. Set aside to cool before using.
melomakarona filling image

Each melomakarono weighed 35 to 38 grams.   I flattened it into a disc, added a teaspoon of filling and sealed it.  I then pressed it on a box grater to make the design.

You can find all the Melomakarona ingredients and instructions here.

My Unconventional chocolate Kourabiedes image

Chocolate Kourabiedes

Yield: 50
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

These chocolate kourabiedes are made with buffalo milk butter and cocoa powder and filled with dark chocolate and orange preserve.

Ingredients

  • 300 grams buffalo milk butter, at room temperature
  • 100 grams shortening or butter
  • 135 grams blanched and roasted almonds
  • 135 grams icing sugar
  • 30 ml brandy
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 630 grams all purpose flour
  • 50 grams cocoa powder
  • 1 vanilla bean (or 10 drops of vanilla essence)

For the filling:

  • ½ cup citrus fruit preserve, I used orange but you can use mandarin, Seville orange, bergamot, kumquat or other citrus, finely chopped
  • 50 grams dark chocolate (72% cocoa), finely chopped

Coating:

  • Citrus blossom water
  • 250 grams icing sugar
  • 30 grams cocoa powder

Instructions

  1. Blanche and roast the almonds in a preheated oven to 180 degrees C for
    about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
  2. Sieve the first amount of icing sugar  Then sieve the flour with cocoa powder separately and mix in the salt.
  3. Coarsely chop the almonds in a food processor, adding a few tablespoons flour each time.
  4. Beat the butter with the icing sugar at high speed until it becomes white and fluffy. Add the brandy and vanilla and mix.
  5. Stop the mixer and switch to the dough hook  Add the almonds as well as the remaining flour gradually until the dough is soft but not sticky on the hands.
  6. Preheat the oven to 180o C.
  7. Wear latex gloves and weigh pieces of dough around 35 - 37 grams, which place on a non-stick surface.
  8. Place a piece of cling film on your working surface and flatten the dough about 1 cm. Add a little bit of orange preserve and chocolate  Take the two opposite sides of the cling film and fold the dough to enclose the filling  Then take it into your hands and shape them into round balls  Give them any shape you like.
  9. Place them in a baking tin lined with parchment paper and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, depending on your oven.
  10. Set aside to cool 
  11. Spray both sides with some citrus blossom water 
  12. Invert them in a dry tray and sieve some icing sugar on them  Turn them over and do the same 
  13. Place them in a platter and sieve a little bit of cocoa powder on top.
  14. Put the used icing sugar back in the sieve and continue the same
    procedure from the remaining 
  15. They can be stored in an air tight container for a long time.

Notes

If you cannot find buffalo milk butter, you can substitute it with the same amount of ewe's milk butter (which is the traditional one used) or cow's butter. The taste of the final product may be different from the original as each butter has its own distinct flavour.

Nutrition Information
Yield 50 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 146Total Fat 5gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 4mgSodium 45mgCarbohydrates 23gFiber 1gSugar 10gProtein 3g

"These values are automatically calculated and offered for guidance only. Their accuracy is not guaranteed."

Did you make this recipe?

Tried this recipe? Tag me @ivyliac and use the hashtag #kopiaste!

Christmas Desserts

Looking for inspiration for this Christmas?

Wishing you A Merry Christmas and happy holidays.  Hopefully I will post another recipe before the end of the year.

Collage Chocolate Kourabiedes image

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!

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Taste of Beirut

Monday 29th of December 2014

Wow! This recipe is unusual but looks exciting! Wonderful, can't wait to try it.

Angie

Sunday 21st of December 2014

I want some too. Love the filling! Happy Holidays, Ivy! Angie

George theodoridis

Sunday 21st of December 2014

Ivy, Ivy, Ivy! What a great idea to make choc kourabiedes but, but, but! Buffalo milk butter? Where on earth is a poor migrant in australia going to find that ingredient? Please, mate (it's an australian expression, "mate!") when you have such unusual ingredients in the recipe include an alternative and the adjusted (if necessary) amount.

What do I do now? I'll ask the question on your fb post because I'll need to know in a hurry!

Ivy

Sunday 21st of December 2014

Dear George, butter is butter no matter from what animal it is derived. You can use cow's butter or ewe's butter without having to change the amount. Each butter has its own distinct flavour and that's what makes them different.

Rosa

Sunday 21st of December 2014

Mmmmhhh, fantastic! I wish I could taste them... ;-)

Cheers,

Rosa

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