These Armenian kurabia are tender butter cookies buried in powdered sugar, the Armenian cousin of Greek kourabiedes. With just butter, sugar, flour, vanilla and a snowy coat of powdered sugar, they are one of the easiest holiday cookies you will ever make, and they melt the second they hit your tongue.
Kurabia and Kourabiedes: One Holiday Cookie With Many Neighbors
If you grew up anywhere from Greece to Iran, you probably know some version of this cookie. Greeks call it kourabiedes, Turks call it kurabiye, Bulgarians call it kurabii, Serbians call it gurabija, and across the Levant it is ghraybeh. Armenians call it kurabia. A similar shortbread shows up in the earliest known Arabic cookbook, written in 10th century Baghdad, and butter cookies like it kept appearing in Arabic cookbooks for centuries after. Kurabiye was part of Ottoman kitchens by the 1400s. One theory traces the name to a Persian rose water cookie called gulabiya.
What ties all of these neighbors together is the season. Across the region, this is the cookie that comes out for Christmas and the New Year. In many Armenian homes, a holiday cookie tray just does not feel finished without a plate of kurabia sitting next to the coffee.
In our family, dessert is not just the end of the meal. It is practically a third dinner. We always have a ton of hors d'oeuvres, a ton of dinner, and then a whole table of desserts. My favorite part of the holidays is watching the kids get so excited opening their gifts, but a very close second is when the best recipes come out, the ones we only make once a year. These snowy little S cookies are exactly that kind of recipe.
Other Holiday Desserts to Try
- Easy Pistachio Baklava Nests
- Cheoreg (Armenian Sweet Bread)
- White and Dark Chocolate Raspberry Bark
- No-Bake Chocolate Eclair Cake
Jump to:
Why You'll Love These Armenian Butter Cookies
- Just 4 ingredients: butter, powdered sugar, flour and vanilla.
- No eggs and no fancy equipment: a bowl and a wooden spoon work just fine.
- Budget friendly: pantry staples you probably already have.
- Perfect for cookie trays and gifting: they hold their shape and keep well.
- Kids can help: rolling, shaping and dusting is the fun part.
Kurabia Ingredients (Simple Kourabiedes Style)
- Unsalted butter: softened. It is the star of the cookie, so use one you love.
- Powdered sugar (in the dough): beaten into the whipped butter until smooth. It keeps the cookies tender and sandy.
- All-purpose flour: added a little at a time until the dough is soft and pliable.
- Vanilla extract: a full teaspoon for a warm, cozy flavor.
- Powdered sugar: for the snowy coating that makes these taste like the holidays.
Exact amounts are in the recipe card below.
How to Make Armenian Kurabia
- Whip the butter. Beat room temperature butter for 4 to 5 minutes until pale and fluffy, then beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla.
- Add the flour and chill. Mix in the flour just until a soft dough forms, then chill it briefly so it is easy to roll.
- Shape, chill again and bake. Roll the dough into ropes, curl them into S shapes, chill the tray for 10 minutes, then bake low and slow at 300°F.
- Cool and dust twice. Let them cool on the pan, dust with powdered sugar while still warm, and dust again right before serving.
Things I Learned While Testing These Kurabia Cookies (Read Before You Bake)
This is a very simple recipe, but the steps matter. These are the four things that make the difference between kurabia that melt in your mouth and cookies that spread flat or crumble.
- Whip room temperature butter for 4 to 5 minutes. Soft, not melted. Melted butter makes them spread and turn greasy. Let the mixer run until the butter is pale and fluffy; this is what gives kurabia that tender, sandy bite.
- Chill the dough before you shape it. A few minutes in the fridge (15 to 20) or the freezer (6 to 8) keeps the dough from sticking to your fingers and makes rolling the ropes so much easier.
- Chill the shaped S cookies again for 10 minutes. This second chill is what keeps the S shape sharp. Skip it and they bake up flat.
- They will still be soft when they come out of the oven, and that is right. Bake on the middle rack at 300°F for about 17 to 18 minutes. Look for tops that are dry and pale with just a slight golden color on the bottom. They firm up as they cool, so do not try to move them off the cookie sheet until they have cooled.
Dust them twice. Give them a light dusting of powdered sugar about 6 minutes after they come out of the oven, while they are still warm, so it melts on and sticks. Then dust them again right before serving for that snowy look.
Kurabia Variations
- Walnut kurabia: mix finely chopped walnuts into the dough or press a walnut half on top.
- Cinnamon kurabia: add ½ teaspoon cinnamon with the flour.
- Classic shapes: try S shapes, crescents or little horseshoes.
- Plain and simple: skip the powdered sugar for a pale, buttery shortbread style cookie.
How to Store Kurabia
- Room temperature: keep in an airtight tin for up to 1 week.
- Freezer: freeze the baked cookies (before second dusting) for up to 3 months, then thaw and dust.
- Make ahead: they are perfect to bake a few days before a holiday gathering.
Kurabia and Kourabiedes FAQ
They are cousins from the same family of holiday butter cookies. Greek kourabiedes usually include almonds and are rolled in powdered sugar. Armenian kurabia are simple butter, sugar and flour cookies, and many families dust them with powdered sugar too.
Baking at 300°F keeps the cookies pale, tender and melt in your mouth instead of crisp and brown.
Not this version. These kurabia are made with butter, sugar, flour and vanilla, then dusted with powdered sugar.
Yes. Cream the softened butter well with a wooden spoon. It just takes a little longer.
Let the cookies cool almost completely before the final dusting. A light first coat while barely warm and a second coat once cool gives you that snowy look.
What to Serve with Kurabia
Serve them with Armenian coffee or hot tea, or add them to a holiday cookie tray next to baklava nests and a braided loaf of cheoreg.
More Holiday Cookie and Dessert Recipes to Try
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Did You Love These Armenian Kurabia?
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Armenian Kurabia Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ pound unsalted butter 1 cup or 2 sticks, softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar (confectioners sugar), sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus up to ¼ cup more if the dough is sticky
- ½ cup powdered sugar for dusting, divided
Instructions
- Line two baking sheets with parchment.
- Beat the room temperature butter (soft, not melted) on medium high for 4 to 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Add the flour a little at a time, mixing just until a soft, pliable dough forms.
- Chill the dough until it is firm enough to roll without sticking to your fingers: 15 to 20 minutes in the fridge or 6 to 8 minutes in the freezer.
- Heat the oven to 300°F with a rack in the middle.
- Scoop about 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. Roll each piece into a 5 to 6 inch rope about as thick as your pinky.
- Curl one end toward the center and the other end the opposite way to make an S. Place on the lined sheets about 1 inch apart.
- Chill the shaped cookies in the fridge for 10 minutes so they hold their S shape.
- Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for 17 to 18 minutes, until the tops look dry and pale and the bottoms are just slightly golden. They will still be soft.
- Let the cookies cool on the sheet. Do not move them until they have cooled; they firm up as they cool.
- About 5 minutes after they come out of the oven, sift ¼ cup powdered sugar over the warm cookies. Right before serving, dust with the remaining ¼ cup.
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