Graybeh - Butter Cookies in Powdered Sugar

Graybeh are a kind of Middle Eastern shortbread, delicate, buttery, and powdery white. Some people make them with a single raw pistacio in the center, but I prefer to make the little balls, and roll them in powdered sugar.
These little morsels of deliciousness are sure to be a favorite in your household as they are mine. It would not be Christmas without them!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
1 cup superfine sugar

1 cup water

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup shelled raw pistachios (skins removed) - optional

Procedure

Melt the butter in a covered glass dish in the microwave, watching carefully it melts slowly and does not boil. Strain off the melted butter and throw out the milky liquid....use only the clarified butter for this recipe.

Place the sugar in a large bowl. Add 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of the clarified butter and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes until it hardens.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Remove the sugar-butter mixture from the refrigerator. Beat on high speed with an electric hand-held mixer until it has the consistency of whipping cream, about 5 minutes. If the dough is too hard to beat at first, mix with a spoon, then use the electric mixer.

Add the flour, 1 cup at a time, blending with a wooden spoon. Knead with your fingertips to make the dough soft and pliable to work with, a good 10 minutes.

Take a piece of the dough and roll it into a small ball and set on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Try to make all the balls uniform. Don't worry about spacing them as they do not melt or spread out. (At this point, if you want to add your pistachio, flatten the ball slightly with a thumbprint and place 1 single unsalted pistachio in the center.) The dough is very delicate, so take great care in handling as it will be a bit crumbly.

Place cookie sheet in pre-heated oven and bake for only 10 minutes, taking care not to overbake! Then cool completely on the sheet (the cookies will appear almost raw and still soft when you take them out, but will harden when cool). This is the biggest mistake I make, assessing they are not cooked, and leaving them to continue baking! They will get rock-hard if you do this!

You can freeze in a tightly sealed plastic container for up to 1 month, but I'd be surprised if you have any left to freeze!