During my sophomore year of college, I took a semester-long course that changed my life. It was a writing class, geared to help us improve our expository writing skills while exploring a social issue in depth. We had dozens of topics to choose from – Environment and Ethics, Diversity and Racial Conflict, Immigrant America, etc. We had to choose our topic carefully, since this would be a subject that we’d be writing no less than 20 term papers about.
I chose a course called The Holocaust. Why? I can’t really explain; it was a gut feeling. I needed to learn more about this tragedy of unimaginable proportions. The class had a profound impact on me. I left the course with one resounding message written on my heart – never forget. Even today, there is unimaginable suffering and genocide happening in our world. It is our responsibility as humans to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, to ensure that we do not allow it to happen again.
When we talk about the Holocaust, the last thing that comes to mind is cooking—in fact, it seems strange to associate cookbook recipes with such a tremendous tragedy. And yet, there are several incredible cookbooks and compilations of recipes written by Holocaust survivors. Recipes are a way of keeping family history alive—they’re a tangible reminder of family, home, comfort, and security. Entire families were lost in the concentration camps, leaving survivors to push forward alone in the world, clinging to only memories of their loved ones. One way to keep those memories alive is to recreate their recipes, to share them and in that way remember their spirit.
The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook strives to keep those memories alive. It’s a compilation of heartbreaking survivor stories that put faces and names to the victims of the Holocaust. It also includes several authentic recipes from survivors and their families. I discovered this book last year, and I treasure it.
In full disclosure—because this is, after all, a cooking blog—the Holocaust Survivor Cookbook isn’t the most reliable source for foolproof recipes. Because the book features personal family recipes, some are not written very clearly. Several of the recipes list ingredients that are missing in the instructions, leaving you to guess where and when you should add them. That said, I still recommend that you buy this book–not only for the food, but for the history. It is filled with true, personal stories of survival during one of the darkest periods in human history. In addition, there are some wonderful recipes that are worth the price of the book itself.
This recipe comes from the family of survivor Rena Gani Carasso. Here is an excerpt from her story:
Rena and Daniel, 1989 (Photo courtesy of The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook)
Rena was born in Prevesa Greece in 1915. Prevesa was a small Jewish community a few hours from Athens. Her father Solomon was a prosperous textile merchant and her mother Simcha stayed home and raised their five children.
In 1943 the Germans invaded their town and arrested all of the Jews. The entire Gani family was sent to the Birkenau/Auschwitz concentration camp where the parents were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
Rena and her sister Ellie were sent to the women’s camp, while her three brothers went to the men’s camp. The three young men fought valiantly in an uprising at the men’s camp but were killed… Rena and Ellie survived the women’s camp, and were liberated by the Americans in 1945. They returned to Greece where nothing remained of their once happy family.
…Soon Rena moved to Athens where she met and married tall handsome Daniel Carasso, known to his friends as Nico. Since both Rena and Nico had lost most of their friends and relatives in the Holocaust their wedding was small, but still filled with the hope and promise of the future.
In 1951 Rena, Daniel, and their little daughter Jeanette came to America. Their family is honored on the Wall of Honor at Ellis Island. They later had another daughter Eileen and five beautiful grandchildren.
“Because Our Parents Survived” – Jeanette Kasten and Eileen Metzger and their families
This recipe for Rena Carasso’s Greek Butter Cookies, known as Kourabiedes, was submitted to the cookbook by her daughters Jeannette Katzen and Eileen Metzger. They are a delicious tribute to Rena and her family.
I have made one small modification to this recipe. The cookie dough did not have enough sweetness for me (and I’m not a big fan of sweet), so I went ahead and increased the powdered sugar in the dough to 1 cup. The original recipe calls for ½ cup of sugar in the dough (separate from the 2 cups of dusting sugar). You can add even more sugar to the dough for sweetness if you want, it will not change the dough’s texture.
To purchase your own copy of the Holocaust Survivor Cookbook, click here. Proceeds benefit the Carmei Ha’ir Soup Kitchen, which serves over 500 meals every day to the poor and hungry of Israel.
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Rena Carasso's Kourabiedes - Greek Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 pound unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 pound chopped almonds
- 2 large egg yolks
- 3 cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar, separated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3-5 cups flour
NOTES
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat the butter slowly for 15 minutes. I used an electric mixer for this on a medium low speed setting.
- Slowly add the two egg yolks, 1 cup confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and a little of the flour.
- Continue to beat, slowly adding the chopped almonds and more flour, until a soft dough forms. Scrape the sides of the bowl periodically to make sure all ingredients are well mixed.
- You want the dough to be pliable and easy to form without being too greasy/buttery.
- Roll the dough into crescent or round shapes. I used a little less than 2 tbsp of dough per cookie.Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 15-25 minutes in a 350 degree oven till lightly golden. Remove cookies from the oven.
- Allow to cool, .then dust with the remaining 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar.According to Rena’s recipe, they need to be generously coated in the sugar, not just a little sprinkle. So don’t be shy with it—powder away!
Nutrition
I cannot wait to try this recipe as it looks like the ones my Mom used to make. I do have a question though- I can’t tell from the picture but are you using the dough hook to beet the butter or the other attachment more commonly used for such things (the default attachment I guess). Should I be using the dough hook?
It’s a dough hook. Enjoy!
Hi
I’m sure someone has already told you this by now because I’m not sure when this recipe was posted, but by baking cup they mean the little paper cups or aluminum tin cups that you bake cupcakes it.
You’re welcome! ?
Thank you for the recipe!
Lori Maritsis
Hi there Tori!
I just wanted to thank you so much for such a wonderful recipe for Kourabiedes. My mother would make these from a recipe found in an old Greek cookbook that my father had bought for her when they were first married. He is Greek and my mother is half Greek and so it made sense, because my mother never learned how to cook Greek dishes when she was younger. So, the cookbook was in order.
Your recipe is so simple and so delicious and just so easy that I am truly amazed after results. They are light, tasty, flaky where they form part in your mouth and a wonderful treat.
I made these for the first time for my Greek father for Christmas and he was so appreciative & was very impressed with the finished product. He will be 95 in January and again, this Christmas I am making them for him as a treat. I must say that when I do make them I have to immediately shut down ground rules in the house here that no one is to touch any of the cookies until I have separated and packed up the ones for my father. My son is in love with these cookies.
One thing that I do just a little different than what your recipe calls for, is that I add about a half a teaspoon of almond extract and because my father’s teeth are not all that great, I pulverized the almonds leaving just a few small pieces and mix it into the dough that way. Also, instead of using about a tablespoon and a half to make each cookie, I use a measuring spoon in a teaspoon size and roll them into small balls. Cooking them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment in a 350 degree oven they are done at approximately 20 minutes. Of course from there, everything is the same as your recipe calls for. I cool them, then I doused them with powdered sugar. I allow them to sit in the powdered sugar so this way it can fully encapsulate them. Prior to serving oh, that is why I put them into individual cupcake cups or in this case because they’re really bite-size I use mini cupcake cups or paper candy cups.
For a little bit of a different taste, but still equally as delicious as your recipe, if you roll them into a ball and then pinch the top of the ball so that there is a tiny peek with small indents surrounding it, you can put one whole clove right at the peak and bake it into the cookie. Of course when it comes out of the oven generally speaking the clove would not be eaten but would remain in the cookie during presentation. It gives a very subtle spiced flavor to the cookie, one that might truly be quite delicious during the winter holiday season when our tastes seem to gravitate towards cinnamon, cloves, and Nutmeg and the like.
Tori, thank you again for a wonderful recipe and also for making my 95 year old Greek father a very happy person. These cookies are now a staple in my Christmas cookie repertoire.
So nice of you to share your story and tips, thank you Paula!
Hi
I am Greek and my grandma from Greece never put almonds in her cookies or baking powder or baking soda. They were very simple and delicious. We make them every year and there is not one recipie on here like hers. I even have a Greek cook book from the fifties and no nuts or powders .
The baking cup (cupcake liner or foil liners) help keep powdered sugar with the cookie. Many times these cookies aren’t simply dusted in sugar but rather covered in it.d
I think I can clear up the baking cup mystery. The paper liners used for baking cupcakes used to be called baking cups at some point. So I can safely say that each cookie should be placed in a cupcake liner on a serving tray, for a nice presentation. Thank you for the wonderful history lesson, it preserves family history! <3
So now my post comes in 3 years behind all the others…. 😀 My family are Italian, and my grandparents raised their family in a tiny Italian/Greek mining town in Utah. Everything my grandmother and her Greek friend (Amelia and Annie) did or said, was a mixture of Italian or Greek (including the swear words!) These cookies were made JUST LIKE THIS by Annie, but my grandmother would: melt the butter and skim off the stuff that came to the top (I suspect this was extra fat, or salt), and then left the almonds OUT, and put a solid clove dead center. The skimming of the butter would make them literally fall apart, and were so delicate and buttery! But now I don’t skim, as I use the unsalted butter, and they stay together better. I also add a little bit of corn starch to keep them together. I still don’t use the almonds, but I add the sugar in the dough, and sometimes cinnamon, too! I love these!
my cookies came out flat after shaping them. when i took out of the oven they were pancakes. Do i need to put more flour? Is it because i had the dough in the refrigerator over night?
Hi Peter, Tori’s assistant Ashley here! I’m not sure what went wrong with your recipe if you followed directions carefully. My guess is that it might have been refrigerating the dough overnight, but I can’t say for certain.
Cool the dough in the refrigerator for at least half an hour before forming and baking.
You may not have used enough flour and also, you should be careful not to over mix the dough when you add the flour. It should be almost crumbly until you start to shape it. The same thing happened to me the first time I tried using a recipe that called for a lot less flour. This recipe was perfect. I made mine without the nuts and adding one family secret ingredient;)