But first, I want you to meet Irene!
ensure this money goes to your mum!
I sternly remind Angela and Diane every time I buy some.
Irene with her famous Cretan Cookies and her daughters, Angela (left) and Diane (right) at the family hair salonDeange Hair.
Its a wonderfully familiar scene that provides much amusement to regulars.
Of all the homemade cookies Ive tried (and Im pretty sure Ive tried them all!
), the Greek Cretan biscuits have been my favourite.
Irene with her famous Cretan Cookies and her daughters, Angela (left) and Diane (right) at the family hair salonDeange Hair.
Thank you Irene for sharing your recipe!
About Irenes Cretan Biscuits
What Traditional Greek cookies from the island of Crete.
Taste Like almond flavouredshortbread cookies.
Irene with her stash of homemade cookies sold at my hair salon,Deange Hairin Tennyson Point.
Beautifully buttery with a soft crumble.
Look Shaped like a mound (nice and hefty to bite into!)
and decorated with almond flakes which add extra almond flavour as well as texture.
Showing Irene photos of my cookies! Left to right: Angela, me, Irene (the star!) and Diane.
How much I love them A lot!
High sentimental attachment because of the recipe source.
Make foroffice morning tea, book club, school bake sale and just because.
Left to right: Angela, Irene, me and Diane!
Ingredients in Irenes Cretan Biscuits
Heres what you gotta make Irenes Cretan Biscuits.
meaning they have been briefly boiled in water so the skin comes off easily.
These almonds are softer and have a more subtle almond flavour than regular roasted almonds.
Can you use regular almonds with skins?Yep, you sure can and the flavour will be similar.
But prepare yourself for little dark brown bits inside your cookies!
Butter Gives these cookies the divine buttery flavour reminiscent of shortbread cookies.
I prefer to use unsalted then add my own amount of salt.
But if you only have salted thats fine, just skip the salt in the recipe.
Flour Just plain / all-purpose flour.
Note: Irenes original recipe called for self raising flour.
See FAQ for what and why I deviated from her original recipe!
Baking powder This is what makes the cookies rise into those wonderful little mounds!
Dont substitute with baking soda (bi-carbonate soda), the cookies will taste metallic.
Egg Use a large egg which is sold in cartons labelled as large eggs.
They are ~50g/2 oz each in shells.
Got jumbo eggs?Crack, whisk, measure out 45g / 2 1/2 tbsp.
(More information here).
Make sureyour egg is at room temperature, not fridge cold.
else you will struggle to get it mixed into the butter properly.
Vanilla extract For flavour.
Vanilla extract trumps vanilla essence (imitation).
I wouldnt use pricey vanilla beans in a recipe like this!
Decorating
Egg white Used to brush the top of the biscuits to make the almond flakes stick.
Use the yolk plus leftover egg whites for your morningscrambled eggsoromelette!
Almond flakes For decorating the surface.
Not critical, but a nice to have for both extra almond flavour plus visual.
I would plough ahead with this recipe if I was out!
How to make Irenes Cretan Cookies
This is a straightforward cookie recipe.
For pro bakers, head straight to the abbreviated directions on the recipe card below!
Roasting is not an essential step because the cookies are lovely as is.
But it does bring out the almond flavour.
Its especially good to do this if you are using almonds a little on the old side.
Were not going for finely ground almonds here.
If we were, the recipe would use almond meal instead!
BISCUIT MIXTURE
Whiskthe flour, baking powder and salt together then put them aside.
Creamthe butter and sugar until its light and fluffy, like soft spreadable butter.
It takes about 1 1/2 minutes on medium high.
Egg and vanilla Then beat the egg and vanilla into the butter mixture.
It might look a little curdled but dont worry, it will come together once we add the flour.
Important to ensure the egg is at room temperature as it will incorporate into the butter mixture more easily.
Fridge cold egg will not mix in properly.
Flour mixture in 3 lots Beat in the flour mixture in 3 lots.
Then repeat this twice more until all the flour is used up.
Crushed almonds Then lastly, add the bashed almonds and beat until the flour is fully mixed in.
Finished dough This is what it looks like.
Prevent screen from sleeping
Shaggy but soft, rollable into a smooth ball.
The steps below depict the method I find to be the fastest to make even size cookies.
Trays You will need 2 large baking trays.
Lightly grease with butter or spray with oil then cover with baking paper (parchment paper).
Then place the cookies 4 cm / 1.6 apart on the trays.
(Hot cookies = fragile / mouth burns.
Either situation is not ideal).
Selling at the counter of your hair salon?
Very happy to report that she gave them a big thumbs up.
Nagi x
Greek Cretan Biscuits FAQ
Did you change Irenes recipe?
Yes, a teeny tiny bit!
Mainly for consistency of outcome purposes, which is me sharing this recipe with my recipe writer hat on.
So I added this into my recipe.
Not a critical step but especially useful if your almonds are a little on the old side.
How many cookies does this make?
30, around 6cm / 2.4 wide and 2cm / 0.8 thick.
Can this be made gluten free?
So the difference in cup sizes does not matter for this recipe!
Astute bakers may also notice that the ingredients lists 2 sticks butter which is a US measurement for butter.
This equates to 226g (being 113g per stick) which is less than the 250g listed.
This is deliberate, to account for the US cups being slightly smaller.
No that is not an affiliate link.
