Melomakarona (A Greek Christmas Cookie)

evelyn/athens's Note:

These are a coarse-grained cookie soaked in a honey syrup (the semolina achieves this), popular throughout Greece during the Christmas Holidays. They are wonderful and are THE recipe that makes my house smell like Christmas - orange peel and cloves and cinnamon. The most unbelievable perfume wafts through the house for a couple of days after baking!

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 40 cookies

• 1 ½ cups light olive oil or 1 ½ cups corn oil
• ½ cup butter , at room temperature
• 1 cup beer (or more) or 1 cup orange juice (or more)
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 oranges, zest of , grated
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups fine ground semolina (cream of wheat or farina)
• 6 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Syrup

• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 ½ cups greek thyme honey
• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup walnuts , finely chopped

Directions:

1. Put the corn oil, butter, beer (or orange juice), cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until they are thoroughly blended.
2. Sift about one cup of flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt and blend into the oil mixture.
3. Add the semolina, a cup at a time, into this mixture.
4. Add 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 of flour mentioned in the ingredients list).
5. Use your hands to do the mixing, as an electric mixer will be useless after the first two or three cups of flour have been added.
6. 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 that have been greased with a little olive oil.
7. Bake at 350 degree Fahrenheit for half an hour.
8. Remove the cookies from the oven and pour hot syrup over them.
9. Lay the cookies out in a rimmed baking pan large enough to contain them and pour the hot syrup over the cookies, sprinkle them with the chopped walnuts and let them soak overnight.
10. (Alternatively, if you do not have enough rimmed baking sheets to accommodate all the cookies, you can dip them in batches directly into the hot syrup - keeping the syrup at the lowest possible simmer - and allow to soak in the syrup for 8-10 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon).
11. For the syrup: mix the sugar, honey and water, and bring to a boil.
12. Cook on low heat for four minutes and skim off the foam that forms on top.
13. The next day put them on your prettiest platter, sprinkle each layer evenly with the finely chopped walnuts and wrap with plastic wrap (or put in an airtight container) and serve.
14. These are great keepers and will last for months (my Mom's 'big' batches sometimes made it nearly up until Easter!).

Reviews

[mizboxster]

I was looking for a recipe for authentic Melomakarona that I could make this holiday season as a nostalgic treat for my Greek husband, and this recipe really fit the bill! I followed the recipe exactly as is (using OJ instead of beer), and baked them for the full 30 minutes. They turned out perfectly. Next came the syrup part -- which did take a bit of adaptation to get them to the right consistency that my husband recalls. Perhaps I should have done the slotted spoon method in the pot over the stove, but I opted to pour the simmering syrup over the cookies after they had cooled for 1/2 an hour in the pan. Perhaps the cookies had cooled too much (??), as it took several hours for the cookies to even BEGIN to soak up some of the honey syrup. We decided to put the whole sheet pan (cookies & syrup) back in the oven at a "warming" temp of 170F to help the absorption process along. We did this several times throughout a 5 hour period, and even flipped all the cookies over to try to get the tops to absorb the liquid. Finally, this method worked, and we ended up with DELICIOUS authentic Greek Christmas cookies! They really are very tasty. **Note for next time -- we will either try the slotted spoon method to incorporate the syrup into the cookies, OR try pouring the hot syrup over the cookies only 5 minutes after they come out of the oven (instead of waiting until they cool). **ALSO, of note, I used a regular ice cream scooper (not the kind that is round and has the spring lever) but a typical oblong ice cream scooper, to pack the raw cookie dough into to form the flattened egg-shaped cylinders. WORKED LIKE A CHARM & was far more efficient than molding each one by hand. Thanks Evelyn for a great recipe that I feel will become an annual Christmas tradition in our family!

[Tiggrr]

After receiving the Greek honey from Evelyn I just had to make these. Although they are a little bit of work to make they turn out wonderfully and make a LOT of cookies. Took some to work and a coworker told me that tasted like baklava in a cookie. Really wonderful with a cup of tea. Thanks Evelyn for such a great recipe!

[fruii]

These were lovely. Having never had these before, I wasn't sure what a good version was. But thumbs up, very nice and even drenched in syrup were not overly sweet. Reminded me of baklava. I was looking for something different for Christmas. Will be fabulous with coffee. Thanks and will make again. I only made half a batch to try but rest assured it is worth making a lot and packing up in containers for future use. I stored mine in the fridge, in containers with the biscuits between layers of non stick paper.