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• Baking powder and a stiff dough, worked like a bread dough. Koulourakia are kneaded, briefly. That is unusual for a cookie and it is what makes the strand hold a braid without slumping.
• Egg wash twice — once before baking and once ten minutes in — for the deep mahogany gloss that is the visual signature.
• Vanilla and orange zest, or mastic, and a splash of brandy. Not cinnamon; cinnamon puts them in the wrong holiday.
• Roll on an unfloured bench. A little friction is needed to make the strand; flour makes it slide and the rope tears.
• Bake until dry. 20–22 minutes. They are supposed to snap and to keep for weeks.

Makes about 40.

• 250 g unsalted butter, softened
• 200 g granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100 ml milk
• 2 tbsp brandy, optional
• 2 tsp vanilla — see Pure vanilla extract
• zest of 1 orange
• 750 g all-purpose flour
• 15 g baking powder
• 4 g fine salt
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze
• sesame seeds, optional

Cream the butter and sugar four minutes, add the eggs one at a time, then the milk, brandy, vanilla and zest.

Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt, then turn out and knead for two minutes to a smooth, soft, non-sticky dough. Rest 20 minutes.

Take 25 g pieces and roll each into a 20 cm rope on an unfloured bench. Fold in half and twist, or coil into a snail, or shape into a horseshoe.

Set on parchment, brush with egg wash, and scatter sesame if using. Bake 180 °C / 350 °F for 20–22 minutes, brushing again with egg at the ten-minute mark, until deep golden brown.

• They are dunking biscuits. Dry and firm is correct; a soft koulouraki has been underbaked.
• Mastic and mahleb — ground cherry-stone kernel — are the traditional Greek aromatics and both are worth buying once; see expensive spices.
• Keeps a month in a tin.

Method and theory: Cookie recipes · cookies · quick breads

Nearby: kourabiedes · melomakarona · spritz cookies