Last updated on November 10th, 2025.
Koulourakia are authentic Greek Butter Cookies that taste like home. They are crisp, buttery and each is hand-shaped and designed to be the perfect dunking companion for your afternoon coffee or tea.
Koulourakia are Greek cookies traditionally made for Easter, but honestly, they’re too good to save for just once a year. This is my Greek mother-in-law’s recipe, and it’s the kind of cookie that smells and tastes like home.
Crispy, lightly sweet, and impossible to stop at one (or three), they’re perfect for dunking in coffee or milk. My husband lets his soften in coffee, my girls count the ABCs while theirs soak in milk.
Think of them as the Greek version of American Chocolate Chip Cookies or Italian Pignoli cookies: simple, comforting, and universally loved. And speaking from experience, when you bake these, expect friends to “drop by” just to raid your cookie jar.
key Ingredients
The complete recipe is at the bottom of this post, including measurements. Here is a quick recap to the key ingredients and substitutions when possible.
- Unsalted butter. Please, do not use salted butter, each brand adds a different amount and it is hard to control. Too much salt, not only means salty cookies, it might also result in tough cookies. (Because it tightens gluten formation, get a copy of my cookbook “Baking Science” to learn more)
- Sugar. The large amount of sugar is what gives the cookies their beautiful golden brown color and crisp texture, which is why I recommend not to reduce it.
- Egg yolks and Eggs. The perfect combination of flavor and texture: fat from the egg yolks is flavor and protein from the egg whites is crispy texture. By the way, I like to use the egg whites leftovers to brush the cookies before baking, it gives the cookies a beautiful shiny gloss.
- Orange juice
- Brandy (or whiskey). A very small amount is perfect for balancing the sweetness coming from the large amount of sugar.
- Flour. Use the type and brand you like, I usually use un-bleached flour, but you can also use bleached.
- Baking Powder and baking soda. Both are super important, but only the baking powder is used as a leavener. See below for more details.
Make, Shape And Bake
There are three steps for this recipe: making the dough (straightforward), shaping the cookies (the fun part!), and baking (which is relatively longer than most cookies recipes). Below are step-by-step images plus all my tips, and tricks for best results.
Make the Doug
- For a smooth, cohesive dough, make sure the ingredients are at room temperature.
- I highly recommend using a standing mixer for this recipe. There is a fairly large amount of butter and flour in the recipe and I believe a standing mixer is the best fit for the job.
- The dough mixing process is fairly straight forward: cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and liquids then incorporate the flour.
- There is one extra step when making the dough: mixing the baking soda with the brandy. The brandy is acidic, and when mixed with baking soda it will activate it, causing a foam to form. We do this so the baking soda won’t release gas in the dough or act as a leavener, but as a tenderizer, helping the cookies stay crisp yet light, without puffing up or changing shape during baking.
Drop the dough on a clean working surface and check the dough’s texture. If it sticks to your hands and work surface, mix in the remaining 1 cup of flour.
Shaping and Baking The Cookies
This is where the fun begins. There is A LOT of dough. Enough to make 100-120 cookies, so make sure you clear about 45-60 minutes to shape them. Pinch a small amount of dough with your fingers (about the size of a walnut in its shell, I measure it to 20g). Roll the dough into a ball then roll the ball into a 4″ log. Shape the log to your desired shape and place it in a cookie pan lined with parchment paper, living about 1.5″ space between each cookie.
The most traditional shape is the twist and the “s” shape, but you can basically shape however you like.
Bake the cookies at 350°F, over the middle rack for about 20-25 minutes, please pay attention to the cookies and not the timer. They are ready when they are medium-dark color, the darker they are the crispier the will set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- Because this is such a large amount of dough and cookies, you can back as many pans as your oven can fit at once. The bake time will be longer and it is best to to switch the spots every 15 minutes or so.
- You can definitely eat them warm from the oven but please know that they have yet to set so they might be soft. Once they cool they get crispy.
Yields and Storing the cookies
This recipe makes 100-120 cookies, and can be cut in half to make 50-60 cookies.
The cookies are fresh for quite a while. If stored in a airtight container, or my personal favorite: a glass cookie jar, they can stay fresh for 2-3 weeks (I even had them for up to 4 weeks).
Yia-Yia’s Greek Butter Cookies (They Taste Like Home)
Ingredients
- 4 Sticks (450g) Butter soft
- 2 1/2 Cups (500g) Sugar
- 6 Large Egg yolks
- 2 Large Eggs (reserve egg whites for brushing the cookies)
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/2 Cup (120ml) Orange Juice
- 2 TBS Brandy or Whiskey
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 10 Cups (1200g) AP Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
Instructions
- In a bowl of a standing mixer, place the butter and sugar and beat to incorporate, about 1 -2 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure you have a cohesive mixture.
- Add the egg yolk followed by the eggs and mix to incorporate.
- Add the orange juice and vanilla extract.
- In a small bowl mix, the brandy and baking soda then add it to the butter mixture
- Add the baking powder to the flour and mix, With the mixer on low, add 9 cups of the flour. Once the flour has been incorporated, stop the mixer and place the dough on a clean work surface.
- Bring the dough into a large ball. If you feel that the dough is too sticky sprinkle the remaining of the flour (up to 1 cup). The dough should be smooth and easy to work with.
- Preheat oven to 350F and line 5 cookie pans with parchment paper (if you have less that's ok)
- Pinch a small dough ball, about 20 g (About half the size of a shelled walnut). Roll the dough into a 3-4" log, then shape it into a spiral or any of your preferred shape.
- Place the cookie on a lined pan and keep going until the pan is full. Make sure to leave about 1.5" space between each cookie.
- Brush it with the leftover egg whites and bake for 20-25 minutes or just until the cookies are golden on top and a bit darker at the bottom.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Notes
- Make sure the butter, egg, egg yolks and orange juice are all at room temperature.
- Store at room temperature for up to four weeks in a glass cookie jar, or an air-tight container.
- Start by adding 9 cups of flour, and only incorporate more if the dough is too sticky.
- The cookies are ready when they are medium-dark brown, the darker they are the crisper they are.
- This recipe makes 100-120 cookies, and you can cut this recipe by half.
- You can bake multiple of pan at once, make sure to alternate the position every 15 minutes or so.
In step 3 of your directions, the word “add’ is misspelled and reads “ass”.
Thought you should know. Also, I make these with my mom. Being Greek, this is one of my favorite cookies. Thanks for sharing.
Oh no…lol! thank you for letting me know! These are the best cookies and I love it when my mother in law baked them with my girls, I know that this is when the best memories happen. I know you can relate, I guess we all owe thank to the Koulourias!!
Hi! New baker so I’m a bit confused about the eggs. With the 2 whole eggs, I don’t use all the whites? Only some? Because can’t I use some of the leftover whites from the separated eggs to brush the cookies?
For this recipe, you need 2 full eggs (whites and yolks) plus 6 egg yolks. I use the leftover egg whites to brush the eggs before baking. Let me know if you have more questions.
Hello, you spelled defiantly instead of definitely a couple of times. But it seems like a great recipe!! Pretty excited to try it out!!!
thank you Amber!
Enjoy baking them, they are so much fun!
Can we omit the use of whisky or brandy??
for sure
I would try ouzo instead of brandy
I do not hate this idea!!!!
When do you add OJ?
after the eggs, along with the vanilla extract
Unsalted butter and no salt in the recipe? Is this an omission?
No, the baking powder and baking soda produce and release salt during baking.