Ghraybeh

Ghraybeh is the Arabic name for Middle Eastern shortbread cookies, delicious melt in your mouth butter cookies that are made with a few simple ingredients.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Middle Eastern

Diet Halal, Vegetarian

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Resting time 1

Servings people

Calories 267kcal

Author Farah Abumaizar

Ingredients

1 cup ghee or butter, room temperature (not melted)
1 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar)
1 teaspoon rose water
1 tsp orange blossom water
2.5 cups all purpose flour 315g
handful shelled pistachios or pistachio slivers

Instructions

In a stand mixer on medium speed, cream the ghee or butter for a couple of minutes until light in color.
Add the sugar, rose water and orange blossom water and cream for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the flour, reduce speed to low, and mix until just combined.
Cover the dough in plastic wrap, and rest the dough in the fridge for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325F (160C).
Shape little circles of dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. Mine were about 20 grams each. Press a whole pistachio into the center of each dough ball.
Bake for 15 minutes until set in the middle rack of the oven, they won't darken in color but the bottom will be a very light golden brown.
Cool completely and enjoy!

Video

Notes

Ingredient notes:

It's best to use ghee as this is the authentic way of making Ghraybeh, but you can substitute pistachios if you want.

You can leave out the pistachios, and substitute with walnuts or almond slivers, or a dollop of apricot, rose, or raspberry jam.

Recipe notes:

Beat the ingredients in stages very well, it's what will cause that melt in your mouth texture, set a timer to make sure you are beating for the amount of minutes directed in the recipe.
If you have a kitchen scale, use it to weigh the ingredients. You'll get more precise measurements.
Don't overbake- these are a very pale cookie as indicated in the photos. They just need to be set!

Storing leftovers and freezing instructions:

Leftovers will last two weeks in an airtight container at room temperature.

You can also freeze the baked cookies for up to two months in an airtight container, they'll thaw quickly at room temperature. You can also freeze unbaked cookie balls for the same amount of time, and bake directly from frozen- this would be my preferred freezing method. Just add 2-3 minutes to cooking time.

Nutrition