Greece has given the world democracy, philosophy, and mathematics.

And it also has given the world kourabiethes. Some people would argue these are the best gift of all.

Kourabiethes are cookies made of butter and flour and more butter, topped with a cloud of confectioners' sugar and maybe a little more butter. No wonder they are so popular at the annual Greek-American Festival held at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 740 North Superior St.

This year's festival will be the 41st, and organizers expect the usual big crowds for the event which runs Friday through Sunday. They will be ready for all who come, with more than 13,000 stuffed grape leaves (last year they sold out of all 13,329), 4,800 pieces of baklava, and about 1,500 kourabiethes -- "all made with love," said parish council president Jerry Biernacki.

And of course all of the other regular foods will be available, including lamb shanks, gyros (and chicken gyros), souvlaki, chicken marinated with oregano, spanakopita, mousaka, and more. For the first time this year the festival will also offer saganaki, pan-seared cheese dowsed in brandy and set aflame to hearty cheers of "Opaa!"

Many of the festival revelers will head straight to the cathedral's education center, one long wall of which will be lined with a seemingly limitless array of pastries, from baklava to honey puffs (loukoumathes), from custard-filled pastry (galaktobouriko) to kourabiethes.

It's all homemade, and a few weeks ago a couple of dozen parishioners got together to make tray after tray of the sugar-dusted kourabiethes. Despite the personal touch, this was a large-scale operation, with four pounds of butter and about five pounds of flour mixed in the church's commercial mixer for each batch by Olympia Ntakos. In went powdered sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract, almond extract, and baking powder -- the cookies often have toasted almonds, too, but the festival leaves them out of this one pastry in deference to people with food allergies, and it was all beaten until the dough was well mixed.

"This is my favorite food of all the Greek pastries," said Ann Hadgigeorge.

"It's all butter, that's why," Mrs. Ntakos said.

Each batch is good for about 200 cookies, and when it was thoroughly mixed it was carried on plastic trays to long tables where women armed with small ice cream scoops reached in and measured out uniform portions.

"It's very high tech with the ice cream scoops," said Kathy Chaka, who was doing some of the scooping.

The perfectly portioned mounds of dough were carried to yet another table, where more workers rolled them into balls and then flattened them into discs. A woman gave each one a final inspection and then they were popped into the ovens, 10 trays at a time, to bake until they were lightly golden. After cooling, they were brought to one last table, where they received a heavy sprinkling of powdered sugar through sieves.

"Don't inhale before you eat it -- you'll get a mouth full of powdered sugar," said the Rev. Aristotle Damaskos, dean of the cathedral.

"Father knows, because he wears black," Mrs. Hadgigeorge said.

The food is the undisputed star of the festival, which was started in 1970 by John Mancy and Steve Evdemon, who were restaurateurs as well as members of the church. Many of the 25,000 or so who now attend come only for the food. But the organizers make sure patrons can get a fully dimensional view of Greece with music and dance, and tables with religious icons, clothing, jewelry, traditional crafts, and imported gifts for sale.

Maria Kopan will show how to make some desserts at 7 p.m. Friday; Susan Sieben will prepare honey puffs (loukomathes) at 6 p.m. Saturday; Karen George will demonstrate how to make spinach pie (spanikopita) at 2:30 p.m. Sunday; and George Kamilaris will make his famous pastichio at 4 p.m. Sunday.

The festival is the church's biggest fund-raiser of the year, so the cathedral will also be available for self-guided tours.

Admission for adults is free on Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is $4 for the remainder of Friday until midnight and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight. Sunday from noon to 7 p.m., adult admission will be $1. Children 12 and under are always free when accompanied by an adult.

For more information, call the cathedral office at 419-243-9189.

Contact Daniel Neman at: dneman@theblade.com or 419-724-6155.

RECIPE

Kourabiethes

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

¼ cup powdered sugar plus more for topping

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

½ teaspoon baking powder

4-5 cups flour, sifted

¾ cup almonds, toasted and chopped, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat butter well for about 15 minutes. Add powdered sugar and then egg yolks. Beat well. Add vanilla and almond extracts.

In a separate bowl, add baking powder to flour and mix well to combine. Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture a little bit at a time, beating slowly. Knead the rest of the flour into the dough by hand. Stir in the almonds if using.

Shape the dough into uniform balls 1½-2 inches in diameter, flatten by hand, and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 35 minutes, then cool in the pan 10 minutes. Sift powdered sugar generously over the warm cookies.

Yield: 40-50 cookies

Source: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral

First Published September 6, 2011, 4:15 a.m.