Delicious and delicate Middle Eastern cookies that melt in your mouth…
These cookies have the ability to transport me back to my childhood. There is something about their creamy like texture and the way they just melt in your mouth. It’s incredible! I remember having these cookies around since I was a little kid, either store bought or home baked by my Mum. And we still bake or buy them from the store from time to time. They come in different shapes, but the taste is always amazing!
Ghraybeh is incredibly easy to make. It consists of only a few ingredients. Once you try them you will fall in love! The ingredients are: butter or ghee, flour, powdered sugar, and pistachios! To bake these tasty middle eastern cookies you start off by mixing the butter/ghee with the powdered sugar using your hand, then add the flour and mix until it’s well combined. The dough should be nice and soft that it doesn’t stick to your hands (If you like vanilla you can add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract to the mixture). Place the dough ball in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about an hour. If you decide to use butter, then you have to brown the butter by placing it in a saucepan on medium heat until the butter is golden in colour, let it cool for 5 minutes then combine with the powdered sugar.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. Gently knead the dough for a few seconds. Start shaping dough balls that weight about 6 grams each, place on wax paper on a baking tray, flatten and press a pistachio into each cookie! Bake for 10-15 minutes at 150C. But be careful not to burn the cookies as the indicated temperature depends on the type of oven you are using, and these cookies could be burnt easily if the oven is too hot! To make sure that they’re ready to come out the oven, check the bottom of a cookie, it should be golden in colour!
After taking the cookies out of the oven, make sure to give them enough time to cool down because the cookies are very delicate and can break easily. Serve with a cup of unsweetend tea or coffee and enjoy!
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Ghraybeh (Middle Eastern Shortbread Cookies)
cookies
Ingredients
- 60 grams powdered sugar but this depends on how sweet do you like them, if you in general like sweet cookies, then add 40 more grams
- 125 grams ghee/butter
- 250 grams all purpose flour
- pistachios
Instructions
- First you need to mix the ghee/butter with the powdered sugar by hand. Then add the flour to the mixture and mix until it’s well combined. The dough should be nice and soft and should not stick to your hands.
- Place the dough ball into a bowl, cover with a plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
- After you take it out of the refrigerator, let it rest for 15 minutes. Gently knead the dough for a few seconds and start shaping dough balls (each should approximately weight about 6 grams), place it on wax paper on a baking tray, flatten it using your hand and press a pistachio into each cookie.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 150c for 10-15 minutes (but this depends on what kind of oven do you use, when done the bottom of the cookies should be golden in colour but be careful as these cookies burn very easily).
- Make sure you give the cookies enough time to cool down because they’re very delicate and are easy to break.
Notes:
Ghee may be substituted with clarified butter at its solid state.
Store in a box (not airtight container) at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
Joe says
I tried the recipe as is with just the 60 gram of sugar, 125g of ghee, 250g of AP flour (60-100 grams of sugar seems like a pretty big swing with no changes to the rest of the ingredients). The dough stayed too crumbly to ever form a ball. Tried to cook them that way and just ended up with a tray-full of half-cooked crumbs. Now I’m reading recipes on other websites and seeing eggs?
Sarah says
My 4 and 7 year old made these abs loved them! Simple and delicious!
LAA says
I used room temperature butter and added 50g to the recipe to get the dough to a good consistency. I also baked them at 350 degrees F. They came out well.
Teresa Lucas says
Hi I’m on gluten free, nut free, lactose free, seafood free, soy free, corn free, eggs free for health as I have allergies and also i’m coeliac so can I use only gluten free all plain flour as have grown up with Lebanese food almost a my life but the last 15-20 year I just watch the making of these foods but can’t make or eat them but love to health wouldn’t allow it . Can you help me please as I hate wasting food stuff and I don’t have big dogs to eat the mistakes and because of cost, as I on a tight budget and would love help here to make right choice, so if can help can tell me please as I have no one that can help as I have asked but got told just have one you be OK doctors what do they you have beening eating your Lebanese food all your life your Lebanese and you should listen to them but in early years of me been tested all of the above, I thought yeah they are doctors don’t always are right. OH BOY DOCTORS where right in a big way I was so sick the doctor want me to go to hospital but I couldn’t at time had children and no one take them for a week or two, have been very very very very very careful ever since then, kids have allergies yet thats good but doctors make them do the tests as it can happen to them for or may not.
So can you help me please as I love to make them myself the kids go to the shops buy them or make them themselves I can’t even smell them it makes me feel sick.
CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME
THANK YOU