Smyrna Cookies (or Easter Cookies)

These days, Koulourakia Smyrneika (or Smyrna cookies) are an essential component of Greek culinary tradition. In Greece they are referred to as Smyrna cookies because they only became only widely known after 1922, when refugees from Asia Minor brought with them the recipes of their homeland. In Smyrna they are called Easter cookies because they are traditionally associated with Easter. Sweet and fluffy breads, such as cakes, were virtually unknown in Greece. The same is true for sugar, a luxury item that was rarely used in Greek confectionery, and was only available to the privileged social classes. The most common sweeteners were honey and grape molasses.

Sugar was a popular ingredient in cosmopolitan Smyrna. Recipes on how to make cakes, sponge cakes, meringues, and sweet breads also arrived from Europe together with sugar, allowing the women of Asia Minor to perfect recipes such as vasilopita (which in Smyrna was a sweet cake with dried fruits, nuts, and spices), tsoureki, and of course cookies and koulourakia.

One starts to appreciate the variety, finesse, and uniqueness of their sweets when one considers the abundance of spices they also had at their disposal, such as cardamom, vanilla, mahleb, mastic from the island of Chios (Χίος) and (once) from Kysos (Κύσος), and so many other 'strange' ingredients. Privileged and daring, the women of Smyrna created a baking tradition that was totally different from that of Greece.

These kinds of desserts were unknown to the Greeks. The Greek Vasilopita (Βασιλόπιτα), a New Year's cake, for instance, was traditionally a savoury filo pastry pie filled with meat, poultry, and/or vegetables. Similarly, Christopsomo (Χριστόψωμο), a Greek Christmas cake, was made without sugar or spices and instead sweetened with a small amount of honey or grape molasses 'to sweeten the new year'. Tsoureki (Τσουρέκι), a Greek Easter sweet bread, was unknown. In other words, people were unfamiliar with sweet, fluffy, baked goods, except in major cities. As soon as tsoureki, sponge cakes, cakes (some even with chocolate and cocoa), and fluffy koulourakia scented with butter and mastic were introduced, they were embraced, loved, and adopted immediately. The term smyrneika ('from Smyrna') was applied to every recipe the women of Smyrna brought with them, which is how these cookies got their name.

Smyrna cookies are made primarily with butter and aromatic spices, like vanilla, although orange zest or mastic are also used. Despite the numerous variations, they are all distinguished by their fluffy yet crispy texture, aroma. And finesse. The most common shapes are an elongated spiral (like a small boat), a snail, and a double snail, but they are frequently braided into a simple braid as well.