Melomacarona
Submitted by jsteiger
Melomakarona: traditional Greek Christmas cookies made with olive oil, orange zest, and semolina, soaked in honey syrup and topped with walnuts. Fragrant, syrup-drenched holiday staple.
YIELD
40 piecesPREP
30 minCOOK
30 minREADY
60 minMelomakarona are one of the two cookies Greece runs on during the holidays (the other being kourabiedes), and they’re built for people who like their sweets spiced, sticky, and unapologetically honey-soaked. The name roughly translates to “honey macaroons," but they’re nothing like French macarons.
The dough uses olive oil as its primary fat, along with butter, beer, cinnamon, clove, and orange zest. Semolina is the secret to the proper texture here: fine semolina gives the cookies that distinctive slightly grainy bite that all-purpose flour alone can’t replicate. Don’t skip it unless you must.
Once baked and cooled, hot honey syrup gets poured right over the cookies and they sit overnight to drink it in. That soaking step is what transforms them from dry biscuits into the sticky, fragrant treats Greek Christmas tables are known for.
Kitchen Tips
- Mix the dough with your hands once the flour is mostly in. A mixer will choke on this stiff, oil-heavy dough.
- Pour the syrup hot over cooled cookies (not the reverse). Hot on hot dissolves the crumb; hot syrup on cool cookies soaks without falling apart.
- Skim the foam off the syrup before pouring for a cleaner, glossier finish.
- Store at room temperature under a loose tea towel for up to 2 weeks; they only get better as they sit.
Variations
- Swap walnuts for chopped pistachios or toasted almonds for a different nutty top.
- Add a strip of orange peel to the honey syrup as it boils for a more citrus-forward soak.
- Finish with a dusting of ground clove or cinnamon along with the nuts for visible spice and extra fragrance.
Ingredients
Directions
Put the olive oil, butter, beer, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until they are thoroughly blended.
Sift about one cup of flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt and blend into the mixture.
Add the semolina, a cup at a time, into the mixture.
Add the enough of the remaining flour, a cup at a time, until you get a rather firm dough (you may need a bit more or less than the amount mentioned in the ingredients list).
Use your hands to do the mixing, as an electric mixer will be useless after the first two or three cup of flour have been added.
Roll the dough into cylinders, about two inches long and one inch in diameter, flatten them with your hands, and place them on cookie sheets greased with a little olive oil.
Bake at 350℉ (180℃). for half an hour.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for about half an hour.
Make the syrup: mix the sugar, honey and water, and bring them to a boil.
Cook on low heat for three minutes and skim off the foam that forms on top.
Pour the hot syrup over the cookies, sprinkle them with the chopped walnuts and let them soak overnight.
NOTES: * Traditional greek Christmas cookies soaked in honey syrup -- This is one of the two kinds of confection that are traditionally consumed in large quantities in Greece during the holiday season (the other is kourabiedes).
I suppose the name translates to something like “honey macaroons", except that they are not really macaroons.
I got the recipe from a greek cookbook.
You can use flour instead of semolina, but only as a last resort, as you won’t be able to get that wonderful grainy texture which you get if you use semolina.
The amounts given here are for only half a recipe.
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