Almond & Rosewater shortbread #Easterbaking.

Too much chocolate and too many hot cross buns at Easter !
Let’s make a snowy pile of kourabiedes instead.
As Gourmet Traveller writes it’s a ‘Greek shortbread served at many celebrations and festivities, be it Christmas, a baptism or Easter.  This melt-in-the-mouth version is scented with vanilla, aniseed and rosewater. Don’t skimp on the icing sugar.’

You need for about 30.
120 gm natural almonds
220 gm softened butter
375 gm (2½ cups) pure icing sugar, sieved
Scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean
1 egg yolk
30 ml ouzo
330 gm plain flour
3½ tsp baking powder
1½ tbsp rosewater, or to taste .

•   Slip into Caftan
•    Preheat oven to 180C.
•    Spread almonds on an oven tray and roast, stirring occasionally, until as golden brown as a Prada bag. (5-6 minutes).
•    When cool enough to handle, coarsely chop and set aside. That’s the almonds not the Prada bag. Yikes.
•    Beat butter, 75gm icing sugar and vanilla seeds in an electric mixer until light and fluffy as  Miu Miu Mohair sweater
•    Beat in yolk, then ouzo, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl.
•    Sift in flour and baking powder, add almonds and stir to form a dough as stiff as the new Hermes Birkin bag.
•    Then turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.
•    Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
•    Refrigerate yourself with a gin and tonic.
•    Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1.5cm-thick.
•    Cut into crescents with a 5cm-diameter cutter and place on baking trays lined with baking paper.
•    Press scraps together and repeat.  Sounds like my wardrobe. Scraps together.
•    Bake until light golden (18-20 minutes), cool on trays for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with rosewater.
•    Dust heavily with remaining icing sugar.
•    Cool completely on trays.
•    Biscuits will keep, stored in an airtight container, for 1 week (dust with icing sugar between layers).
•    Easy !