GREEK RECIPES: CHRISTMAS HONEY COOKIES

by.George Portokalakis

HOME COOKING STEP BY STEP:

Melomakarona: Christmas Honey Cookies

Melomakarona are traditional Christmas cookies, wonderfully spiced and soaked in honey-based syrup. Sweet, delicious and addictive! Soft, dipped in honey syrup and covered with chopped walnuts and roasted sesame. One of the most popular treats during the Christmas Holidays and their smell makes every house smell just... LikeChristmas!

Melomakarona is a dark, succulent cookie, juicy and dripping honey, walnuts and roasted sesame all over the place and are made with olive oil, honey, orange juice, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, spiced with cinnamon and a shot of brandy and flour. Soaked with simple syrup of honey and water. Walnuts and roasted sesame sprinkled on top 

INGREDIENTS

For the dough (makes 50 - 55 bisquits)

1 1/2 cups (1 cup = 250g) olive oil

1/2 cup margarine (125g) (room temperature)

1 cup sugar (250g)

4 cups flour (1000g)

3/4 cup orange juice (200g)

1/2 cup brandy

2 tea spoon baking powder

1 tea spoon baking soda

1 tea spoon grated orange rind 

1/2 cup wallnuts crushed 

1 tea spoon cinnamon

For the syrup

2 cups honey

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

To Sprinkle:

5 table spoons sesame roasted

2 cups diced walnuts 

1 tea spoon cinammon 

DIRECTIONS

Mix the sugar, margarine and olive oil together and 

whisk them to get a thin white paste.

Add the baking soda (dissolved in the orange juice), 

the orange rind, 

the baking powder,

the crushed walnuts, 

brandy, 

cinnamon 

and the flour little by little 

until we have a soft dough that doesn’t stick to the hands.

Let it stand for half an hour 

and divide into small portions egg size 

which you roll out into sticks 2 -3 cm wide, 6-7 cm long and 1 - 1 ½ cm thick a little thicker in the middle taking like an oval shape.

Bake the sticks at 180o C = 360 Far for approximately 10-15 minutes (depending the oven). 

When done let them cool down

While they are cooling make the syrup.
While the syrup is boiling over low hit ip and soak the melomakarona one by one or two by two in the syrup for 1-2 minutes to absorb syrup and to moisten. Take them out with a slotted spoon

Place them in a large plate
Sprinkle them with the mixture of walnuts / sesame / cinnamon