Egyptian Shortbread (Ghorayebah)
Egyptian shortbread (also called ghorayebah) are made with clarified butter. They are tender, crisp, and yet sturdy, while they still have that melt-in-your-mouth quality of a good butter cookie!
Servings: 36 cookies
Calories: 97kcal
Ingredients
- 200 grams clarified butter aka ghee or samneh, room temperature
- 125 grams icing sugar sifted
- 1 large egg yolk(s)
- 310 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 30 mL brandy or dark rum or even whiskey or bourbon can work!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 °F (160 °C). Line a couple of sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using an electric hand mixer or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until smooth.
- Add the egg yolk, and mix until combined.
- Add the flour, one third at a time, mixing and scraping down the bowl as needed. Continue beating the dough until it is crumbly but well mixed.
- Mix in the brandy. The dough will be crumbly but hold together when squeezed.
- Form the dough into 2 flattened disks.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 disk until it is ¼ inch thick so that the dough doesn’t stick. Cut into circles with a glass dipped in flour (~2.5 inch diameter glass) or star cookie cutters. Place them on the prepared sheet pans.
- Bake the cookies for about 16 minutes. The cookies are done when they look completely dry on the surface and are just starting to colour on the bottom edges. The timing is highly dependent on how hot your oven is: if your oven is hotter (and heats to closer 350°F), they may bake in as little as 8 minutes. Do not let them brown too much because that changes the flavour completely.
- Remove the pan from the oven, and place it on a wire rack to cool for a couple minutes before transferring the cookies to another rack to cool completely.
- Serve the cookies as is, or sprinkled generously with more powdered sugar.
Notes
- Rolling out shortbread cookie dough is tricky. If you find the dough is cracking a little, just press it back together. If the dough sticks to your work surface, you can use an offset spatula to get the cookies off the table top to transfer them to your baking sheet.
- If you find your cookies spread or lose their shape when they bake in the oven, chill the cutout cookies on the sheet pan for 15 minutes before baking. This will reduce cookie spread.
Nutrition
Calories: 97kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 7IU | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 1mg
