Lebanese Butter Cookies, or Graybeh

5 from 2 votes
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Lebanese graybeh, or butter cookies are one of the least elaborate, yet most delicious, cookies you can bake. They truly melt in your mouth, with a dough of whipped clarified butter, confectioner’s sugar, and flour.

When a cookie is as white and unadorned as this, it’s a wonder to me that I love it so much. I’m such a devotee of the toasty, of all that is DGB (deep golden brown), that it takes significant restraint for me to let our Lebanese butter cookies be who they are. But as with many things in life, there is a payoff for the restraint, in this case a remarkably good melt-in-your-mouth cookie that would be lost if not for a light touch in the baking.

There are countless spellings for Lebanese butter cookies—ghraybeh, grhybe, gorayba, ghrybe, ghoraibi—but all are pronounced the same: ghri (like high)-bee (A glottal sound sits on the “g;” it has to be heard to be known). Every single Lebanese and Middle Eastern cookbook I own includes a simple recipe for ghraybeh. There are as many variations on this cookie as there are spellings, and each one has its merits. I do mine the way I learned from my mother, with a rather genius way of achieving the cookie shape, and if you expected a blanched nut on top and I didn’t include it, let’s agree that it doesn’t make me any less Lebanese. It’s just that I have more say in my own kitchen than does tradition, and I am not a fan of the blanched nut. And in keeping with my DGB restraint, I pass on using even toasted nuts and let the ghraybeh teach me something about the beauty to be found in keeping things simple.

This is the first of a few great and treasured cookie recipes I’ll post over the next week. May our baking this holiday season be filled with joy as it goes out to others, bringing goodness and light.

Diamond-shaped butter cookies with powdered sugar on a round plate
5 from 2 votes

Lebanese Butter Cookies, Graybeh

By Maureen Abood
The Lebanese butter cookie is one of the least elaborate, yet most delicious, cookies in my holiday parade. These cookies can be shaped in diamonds, as I’ve done here, or in simple flattened circles (start with a small ball, then flatten). Top with a blanched almond or pine nut (before baking) instead of dusting with powdered sugar. Flavor the dough with vanilla instead of orange blossom water, or nothing at all. Good butter (like Plugra) will always make these cookies taste wonderful; be sure it’s clarified. The recipe is easily doubled. This recipe has been updated to the same base recipe in my cookbook.
Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients 

  • 3/4 cup (6 oz.) unsalted clarified butter, at cool room temperature
  • 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, plus more for dusting
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon orange blossom water
  • 1 3/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, plus a few more tablespoons as needed

Instructions 

  • Heat oven to 325 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven. 
  • Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or sturdy hand-held mixer, whip the butter on high speed until fluffy, creamy and pale, about six minutes. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula for even whipping. Add the sugar and orange blossom water and whip until well combined and fluffy. On low speed or using a spoon, slowly blend in the flour, ½ cup at a time.
  • Take a large handful of the dough and shape it into a log about 1-inch tall and wide (this is pretty narrow!) on a lightly floured work surface. If the dough is crumbly, gently push it together. Use a sharp knife to cut ½-inch diamond-shaped pieces diagonally.
  • Place the diamonds on a parchment-lined heavy sheet pan and bake until the cookies are baked through but still pale, about 18-20 minutes. The cookies should not be browned except for very minimally on the bottom.
  • Remove from the oven and cool completely on the sheet pan. Sift powdered sugar over the cookies (this can be done while the cookies are warm, and again to refresh when serving). Graybeh keeps frozen for months or in an airtight container for several days.

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Author: Maureen Abood
Servings: 24 cookies
Like this recipe? Leave a comment below!

 

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53 Comments

  1. These cookies are amazing! I took your base recipe, and I adjusted the flavors a little further-
    1. In the base recipe I added orange zest. That was fabulous!
    2. In another variation I added ground anise seeds!
    3. And in a third variation, I changed the orange blossom water to rosewater, and I also added rose petals and slivered pistachios.
    4. In the final variation, I decided to try something extra fancy, and I added saffron after clarifying my butter, and for color I even added fresh grated turmeric.
    Maureen’s recipe is the perfect thing to bring back childhood memories, and for the purist, still the best taste! If you want to tailor to different flavor profiles and make this cookie the centerpiece of any dessert table you can adjust the color or the shape. I love this recipe, and I grew up with this cookie exactly the way Maureen suggests to make it. The mouthfeel is perfect, color and flavor are exact! Thank you Maureen, and happy holidays!

  2. Your web site was recommended by friends that are also Lebanese. I have been trying to find recipes relating back to my grandparents. I remember many of the dishes but not all the recipes. Thank you.

  3. Question (not much of a baker until the pandemic): Do I make clarified butter using 6oz of butter or do I measure 6oz if clarified butter? Or is that the same? My dad and sitte made the clarified butter, but this will be my first time making it. Thank you!

    1. Great question Lori–that measurement is for butter that is already clarified. One cup (2 sticks) of butter that is melted and clarified results in 3/4 cup/6 oz.

  4. Hello Maureen,

    I am having a bake sale to raise funds for Lebanon, following Tuesday’s explosion. Do you know if ghraybeh can be frozen after being cooked? Thank you in advance.

    1. Yes, the cookies can be frozen, very well wrapped in an airtight container. They won’t be good as freshly baked but ought to be fine. Thaw in open air (not wrapped) to avoid any humidity on the cookies. Dust with fresh confectioners’ sugar.

  5. Hello! I have been playing around with using almond flour instead of regular or semolina. It’s close but it’s just not quite right. They’re still a little too crumbly and too sweet. Have you tried swapping almond flour? Any luck?

    (I may just go back to the “unhealthier” version! Just thought it was worth a shot.)

    1. Danielle, I’m intrigued! I have not tried graybeh or any butter cookies with almond flour. Keep us posted on your progress and if I go for it, I will too.

  6. My Lebanese grandmother did not make these, but a friend of hers did. When I got married, that is what I “requested” as a wedding gift from her! It has taken me multiple tries over the years, but I can make them now. Trouble is, Mrs. Nassar always made donut shaped ones, and this dough is REALLY hard to work with. I will try this shape and see if they taste the same to me 😉

  7. Just came across this while trying to find the “gribey” cookies my grandmother always made for Easter– it was also my blonde sister’s nickname, haha! Thanks for posting!

  8. My Grandmother used to make these and they were “S” Shaped, hence the name…S cookies, I didn’t learn the real name till a few years ago.

  9. So happy your doing some Lebanese cookies. Ghiraybe is a favorite here. My daughter likes them in an “S” shape, no blanched nut.
    My mom made the most delicious mamoul
    And I’m hoping you have a recipe to offer. She would soak smeed overnight in clarified butter and finish them with the nut or date fillings next morning. We all had fun putting the buttery dough into the fancy wood molds, adding a teaspoon of filling, closing the dough around the filling, and then slapping the mold down on the table to release the darling cookie.
    Also, do you have a sambousik recipe, those wonderful little sweet turnovers stuffed with nuts, sugar and spices , baked to a light golden color, then dropped into a bowl of attar ( sugar syrup with mazaher) .
    Oh my, I need to start baking!

  10. Hi. My daughter has ancestor day at school and (she being half Syrian) we want to make ghraybeh. We need to bring 100+ bite size samples and I need advice. Can I use a cookie press to make the cookies, do they taste good with rose water too, and if I cut the cookie size in half, how long do I bake them? I’ve never made these and I LOVE them! Thank you for sharing your stories, your recipes and your life. It makes my day every time I go to your site!

    1. Hi Laura–these can be rolled into a small log, just under an inch, and cut on the diagonal in 1-inch diamonds. You can make a few batches so you’ll have plenty for the ancestor day. The perfect cookie for this! Watch the baking as it goes and it’ll be around 15 minutes bake-time. Delicious with rose water too, just use only a couple of drops. Taste the dough to see if you need more. Less is more on the rose water.

  11. I have been making these little melt always for years! I am 72 years old and the recipe calls for the same measurements as yours but I had to measure to learn. Mom and nana, just said clarify the butter and use same amount of sugar. They said keep adding flour until the right consistency It turns out it is about double the flour. They never used orange or rose water, but I am going to add vanilla or the like next time just to see what my family thinks. We do the old in a circle , put a hole in it with a floured pinky and add 3 slivered almonds. We bake at 300 for about 18 20 minutes! Thanks for your wonderful stories and fabulous recipes. I have given your book as presents to cousins.

  12. So glad I found this site. My mother taught me many basic ways to cook Lebanese food but after so many years it is nice to have it in print. My family is really getting into this cusine. My boys are starting to try some recipes with their wives.

  13. Always the most delicious and exotic of all Christmas treats at Sittu’s!!! TY TY TY for the memories!

  14. I’ve also noticed my cookies always remain soft in the Middle and aren’t hard like a cookie should be?

    1. Hello–yes, you can add a drop or two. The challenge of this dough is that it ought to be pretty dry to get the right texture, which means that working with it can be tricky! Let me know how it goes!

  15. I made these cookies recently using my grandmothers recipe….. one pound of butter whipped for about 5 minutes, slowly adding 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, then all purpose flour until dough could be handled by hand. They contained a nut filling (1 cup of coarsely ground pecans was mixed with 1/2 cup sugar). The cookies were shaped similarly…folding the dough around a tsp of nut mixture…baked off at 300 and dusted with powdered sugar. Yield about 36. So light and airy, and a huge hit at the Lebanese dinner I attended.

    1. Hi Magda–thanks for asking. I haven’t tried it but I’ll look into it. It would be great if that same texture were possible without flour for gluten-free diets!

  16. Hello Maureen,

    I tried making your Ghraybeh recipe this evening and had a bit of trouble with the dough. After whipping the butter and adding the sugar and mazaher, I added the flour 1/2 cup at a time until I got to 1cup which resulted in a very coarse, dry dough that was not able to be formed into a ball. I added the remaining flour, so 1 cup, but of course this only made it worse. I threw that out 🙁 and tried again but same result – granted it is 19 F outside (which I am sure has something to do with it).

    In the end I added just about 1/4 of water which of course made a dough form and then another 1 tsp of mazaher just to help with the flavor since the gluten is going to over develop now. 🙁

    Any thoughts or recommendations? Have you faced such an issue before? I know you’re in ice box MI and I am sure the lack of humidity is making kitchen life hard.

    Thanks in advance!
    Matthew

  17. Hello Maureen,
    I had graybeh at a Lebanese food festival last summer and loved them. I am going to try making them. Can this dough be frozen? Thank you.

    1. Hi Cathy–I have not frozen the dough; I suspect it will work fine though. I am working on a new recipe for this for my cookbook, and recommend swapping a cup of the flour for a cup of ground almonds (almond meal).

  18. Is that 300C degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit? I made these exactly as described but the cookies spread dreadfully!

    1. Roula, I’m sorry that happened! It’s 300F, but I know that these cookies can be surprisingly temperamental. It sounds like the dough was too soft and warm; sometimes chilling it can help.

  19. I make these cookies by taking a pinch of dough, rolling in a small ball and then putting the ball between my hands and slowly making about 1/4″ rope and then folding over and looping. I know that there are many different names for cookies but my mother call them (ka’kal howa) which in arabic means like the wind because they simply melt in your mouth. I am sure the spelling is incorrect since I am American born of Lebanese parents, but they are sooooo good.

    1. Hi Joan! Thanks for your great comments! Is your graybeh recipe passed down from your mother similar to this one, same proportions?

  20. Your cookies are gorgeous! I made ghraybeh and they tasted wonderful but were really crumbly. I wonder what I did wrong. Any ideas?

    1. Hi Sarene–thank you and I’m glad you made ghraybeh! They can be very crumbly, which is wonderful for the meltaway texture but of course you want the cookie to hold together. Maybe they were overbaked?

  21. Hi Maureen – I’ve been meaning to write to you about a new virtual cooking community I have started with my friend Sarene Wallace (aka @fringefood) called Tasting Jerusalem. We are learning about Middle Eastern cuisine through the lens of Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Ottolenghi and Tamimi. We are heading into our second month of recipes and are celebrating Valentine’s Day by cooking with roses – rose water and rose petals. One of the recipes is Ghraybeh. I am going to share your post on Twitter hashtag #TastingJrslm and on our facebook page. This is a lovely version – I like it’s absolute simplicity. When I was young, my grandmother made hamantaschen dough (a jewish triangular cookie for Purim which falls in March) in the summer when she visited. It was a simple dough but somehow the taste of those plain orange scented cookies is still one of my strongest memories of her baking.

    I hope you will come by and join our conversation – your knowledge of the cuisine would be a welcome addition to our learning and cooking community!

  22. I have fond of eating these–with the blanched almond on top–made by my Palestinian ex-mother-in-law, Lovely, lovely little cookies. Looking forward to trying this recipe and the one for kibbeh, another favorite of mine.

    She also made fat little miniature cakes with anise in them. She told me they had both yeast and baking powder in them. Have you heard of such a thing, or, better yet, seen a recipe for them? I’d love to make them again.

    1. Hello! I have a recipe for anise cookies but they are a bit different than what you are describing. I will keep looking and let you know!

  23. I grew up eating Americanized “snowball” butter cookies. I’m sure the orange flower water in these adds such a nice flavor and scent. Thank-you for sharing the recipe.

  24. Hi Maureen…I was introduced to these through Charlie and had the distinct joy and responsibility to create these for Adele’s…it was great to be a part of your lovely family’s heritage and tradition…so yummy too!

    1. You make clarified butter by putting sticks of butter in a heavy sauce pan and cooking on low heat until all of the salt is in the bottom. You should be able to see the bottom of the pan. Be sure to cook on low heat because butter burns so quickly. I have cooked lebanese food since a very young age by watching my mother and aunts make baklava, kibbie, and everything lebanese.

  25. Thank you once more, Maureen for bringing back such wonderful childhood memories! I remember these melt-in-your-mouth cookies that my Sitou used to make at Christmas time. I think I’m inspired to try these myself.

      1. This is a good question. The texture of the dough and cookie may differ without clarified butter, but the flavor is likely just as good!