Koulourakia

The story

Koulourakia are the butter cookies of Greek Easter week. Families bake them in the days before Easter, often on Holy Thursday, April 29, 2027, in the Orthodox calendar, the same day the eggs are dyed red and the tsoureki is braided. The dough of butter, sugar and eggs, scented with vanilla and orange zest, is soft and easy to work, and shaping it is often a family job: small ropes are twisted into braids, bent into S shapes or figure eights, or coiled into rings, then brushed with egg and sometimes sprinkled with sesame. The cookies are made to celebrate the Resurrection and the end of the Lenten fast, and families give them to one another as gifts over the Easter days. Neos Kosmos, the Greek-Australian newspaper, notes that they are often the first treat children reach for and the first to disappear. Today they are eaten all year, and Diane Kochilas, the Greek-American cookbook author, calls them a tradition on every Greek table. This version uses baking powder, as Kochilas does. Bake them early in the week, since they keep for two weeks in a tin.