Greece: Melomakarona Recipe (Greek Honey Cookies)
If your family is anything like mine, you are going to devour these delicious cookies from Greece!
ingredients
4C high grade flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground clove
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
125mL freshly squeezed orange juice
125mL olive oil
125mL sunflower oil
50mL honey
100g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 orange
for the syrup
600g caster sugar
100mL honey
450mL water
1 stick of cinnamon
3 whole cloves
1 x 3cm piece lemon rind
for the garnish
½ C chopped walnuts
1tsp cinnamon
method
Preheat the oven to 180ºc (350ºf). Line a baking tray with baking paper.
In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg. Mix together with a fork.
In a separate bowl combine orange juice, oils, honey, water, sugar, vanilla extract and orange zest. Stir together until well mixed.
Add your wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until well incorporated.
Knead lightly with your hands. Place dough in a bowl and place, covered, in the fridge while you make the syrup.
For the syrup: Add all the syrup ingredients to a large saucepan. Bring to the boil.
Once the mixture starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Remove cloves, cinnamon stick and lemon rind from the syrup.
Back to the cookies! Take the dough out of the fridge and start shaping the cookies by breaking off pieces of the dough and shaping into oval shapes, almost like a small egg. Place each cookie on the prepared baking tray.
Using a fork, press a cross-hatch pattern in the centre of each cookie, flattening the egg-shape slightly.
Bake for approximately 20 minutes until a light golden brown colour.
Remove the cookies from the oven and dunk in the cooled syrup for approximately 10 seconds per cookie. Place the cookies on a plate lined with a couple of paper towels to absorb the extra syrup. The texture of the cookies gets quite mushy once you dip them – but still delicious!!
Garnish the cookies with the chopped walnuts!
Prep time 15 minutes, cook time 20 minutes, makes 3 dozen
Click to download the recipe printable over at the resources library
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