Greek Christmas Honey Cookies- Melomakarona

Hotel Segas is inviting you to try some Greek baking during the festive season by following the recipe & video from one of Greece's most charismatic young chefs Akis Petretzikis 

Today's recipe is "Melomakarona" made with honey, walnuts, cinnamon, orange juice & zest, flour and sugar (no eggs, butter or cream), yummy and very healthy!

Ingredients

For syrup 500 ml water 800 g granulated sugar 150 g honey 3 cinnamon sticks 3 whole cloves 1 orange, cut in half

1st mixture 400 ml orange juice 400 ml sunflower oil 180 ml olive oil 50 g caster sugar ½ teaspoon ground cloves 2-3 teaspoons ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon baking soda grated zest of 2 oranges

2nd mixture 1 kilo all-purpose flour 200 g fine semolina

Method

For the syrup

·         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 3-4 hours. It must be cold by the time the cookies come out from the oven.

·         You can prepare the syrup from the day before...

For the cookies

·         Preheat the oven to 190* C (370*F) Fan.

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

·         For the first mixture, add all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix, using a hand whisk.

·         In a separate bowl, add all of the ingredients for the second mixture.

·         Combine the first and second mixture.

·         Mix by hand, very gently and for a very short time (10 seconds at the most). If you mix longer the mixture will split or curdle.

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

·         Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until they are crunchy and dark golden brown.

·         As soon as you remove them from the oven, soak the hot cookies in the syrup for 10 seconds.

·         Allow them to drain on a wire rack.

·         Drizzle with honey and chopped walnuts

Merry Christmas &  a Happy New Year!

Hotel Segas