Melomakàrona

Melomakarona are traditional Greek Christmas cookies. Typical ingredients of these biscuits are flour or semolina, sugar, orange fresh juice, cognac (or similar beverage), cinnamon and olive oil. Immediately after baking, they are immersed for a few seconds in cold syrup made of honey, sugar, dissolved in water. Finally, they are decorated with ground, as well as bigger pieces of walnut.

The word “melomakarona” is a combination of the two Greek words: “mèli” which means honey and “makàrona” which comes from the ancient word “makaria” and means “blessed”

For the 1st mixture:

400 ml orange juice
400 ml vegetable oil
180 ml olive oil
1/2 tsp clove
2-3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 nutmeg
zest of 2 oranges
For the 2nd Mixture:
1 kg flour

1 tsp baking soda
50 g icing sugar

For the syrup:

500 g water
800 g granulated sugar
150 g honey
3 stick(s) cinnamon
3 cloves
1 orange, cut in half

Boil the ingredients for the syrup 2-3 hours before you start making the melomakarona so that there is enough time for the syrup to cool.

1. Boil all of the ingredients for the syrup, apart from honey, until sugar melts. Remove from heat. Add the honey and mix till combined.

let syrup cool for 2 – 3 hours. It must be cold by the time the cookies come out from the oven.
You can prepare the syrup from the day before.

2.Preheat the oven to 190° C (370*F)

To make the cookies, you need to prepare 2 separate mixtures.

3.Mix all the ingredients for mixture 1 thoroughly using a good whisk.

4.Add the ingredients of mixture 2 and mix softly for a little while, just until the flour is fully incorporated in the rest of the mix. Be careful not to overwork the cookie dough because the oil may start to seep out and then they won’t turn out crispy.

5.Mold cookie dough into oval shapes, 3-4 cm in length, 30 g each. Try to keep them as similar as possible.

6.Bake at 190°C for about 20-25 minutes until they are crispy.

7.As soon as you remove them from the oven, soak the hot cookies in the cold syrup for 20-30 seconds.

8.Allow them to drain on a wire rack.

9.Drizzle with honey and chopped walnuts.

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