Honey Cookies (Melomakarona)
Submitted by smile7246
Melomakarona are traditional Greek honey cookies made with orange juice, olive oil, and butter, filled with a walnut-cinnamon mixture and dipped in warm honey syrup.
YIELD
60 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
30 minREADY
1 hrsMelomakarona are the cookies of Greek Christmas, and once you’ve had one fresh from the honey syrup, store-bought never compares. These oval spice cookies are crisp on the outside, tender within, and soaked in warm honey syrup that seeps into every crack and crevice.
The dough gets its richness from both butter and oil, which is unusual but deliberate. Butter adds flavor while the oil keeps the crumb tender and gives the cookies a lighter texture than an all-butter dough would. Fresh orange juice and grated orange rind run through the whole recipe, in the dough, in the nut filling, and in the syrup.
Each cookie hides a spoonful of walnut-cinnamon filling inside, pinched shut and shaped into pointed ovals. The traditional crimped pattern on top isn’t just decorative. Those ridges catch and hold the honey syrup so every bite is sticky and sweet.
Chef Tips
- Dip the cookies in boiling syrup, not warm syrup. The heat opens the pores of the baked cookie and lets the syrup penetrate. Warm syrup just sits on the surface.
- Only dip cookies you plan to serve that day. Store undipped cookies in an airtight container and soak them fresh when needed.
- Ten seconds in the syrup is the sweet spot. Longer makes them soggy and too sweet. Shorter leaves them dry.
- Keep the syrup at a steady boil while dipping. If it cools down and thickens, add a splash of water.
Variations
- No-fill version: Skip the walnut filling and sprinkle crushed walnuts and sesame seeds on top after dipping.
- Chocolate drizzle: After the honey dip, let cookies cool and drizzle with melted dark chocolate for a modern twist.
- Pistachio filling: Swap the walnuts for finely chopped pistachios in the filling for a different nutty flavor.
Ingredients
Directions
Oven temperature: 180 cup (350 F) Beat butter and sugar with orange rind until creamy.
Gradually add oil and continue beating until mixture is very light and fluffy.
Stir in flour alternately with orange juice.
Knead dough lightly with hands for 1 minute.
Take a scant tablespoon of dough and flatten it a little.
Place a teaspoon of the nut filling in the centre and fold dough over to enclose filling.
Shape into ovals, pinching ends to a point.
Decorate tops with tines of fork or by crimping cookies diagonally across top in four rows with special crimper (see NOTE), or leave them plain.
Place on lightly greased baking trays and bake in a moderate oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.
Cool on wire racks.
Dip in boiling syrup, four at a time, turning cookies once.
Leave in syrup 10 seconds in all, longer if well-soaked cookies are preferred.
Lift out onto a plate and leave until cool.
(If no nut filling is used, sprinkle tops with crushed walnuts or toasted sesame seeds and cinnamon.
Only those which are to be served should be dipped; store remainder in an airtight container and dip when required.
TO MAKE NUT FILLING: Thin honey down with orange juice and blend into remaining ingredients.
TO MAKE HONEY SYRUP: Place ingredients in a heavy- based saucepan and stir over heat until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil and boil over moderately high heat for 10 minutes and skim.
Let syrup boil on a moderate heat while dipping cookies.
Add a little water to syrup when it thickens too much during dipping.
NOTE: Icing crimpers will be familiar to many pastrycooks and cake decorators who work with icing.
If you don’t own a crimper (or have never seen one), have the family handyman cut a piece of tin or aluminium plate about 2.
5 x 10 cm (1 x 4 inches). Bend metal in half over a thin rod and cut 6 to 8 evenly spaced saw-like teeth on the narrow edges.
Curl the “teeth” slightly inwards.
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