This eggless Melomakaronas - Greek Holiday Cookies recipe includes ground spices, orange juice and olive oil in the dough and has a honey syrup coating for a sweet bite. These oval shaped cookies are light and buttery and truly melt in your mouth and lightly spiced thanks to the syrup that brings out the spices in the cookies. Have you tasted cookies soaked in syrup before? Let me know in the comments!
For some Greek’s Melomakaronas are so good they can’t just consume these in the holiday season, they’re a treat to be enjoyed whenever you want a little bite of comfort.
Why you'll love these
Light and buttery
Despite the fact there is more oil than butter in the cookies, they are so melt-in-your-mouth you’ll be surprised you haven’t heard of them before.
Crunchy walnut topping
Not going to lie, the Greek Walnut Cookies in my pictures are a bit more extra than ones you might have seen elsewhere, however, the walnuts add
Ingredients and substitutions for Greek Holiday Cookies
- Butter: Unsalted butter is used for the cookie, but if all you have on hand is salted, that works as a fine substitute, just leave out any salt suggested in the recipe.
- Sugar: Confectioners or icing sugar dissolves into the cookies, helping create the melt-in-your-mouth texture and the superfine or caster sugar helps create the sweetness in the syrup without adding any additional flavor.
- Orange juice: You only need a small amount here which helps add a depth of flavor and is a traditional ingredient in these cookies.
- Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best for a nice light cookie crumb.
- Baking powder: This helps our cookies rise so they are not stodgy.
- Ground spices: The spices add that subtle holiday undertone to these cookies.
- Olive oil: The most traditional oil included here thanks to the fact olives and Greece have a long history and extra virgin olive oil is full of fruity undertones which pairs perfectly with the flavors in these cookies.
- Walnuts: Raw walnuts are the traditional ingredient to top our cookies. The recipe creates a large enough portion of the walnut topping that even with the amount on the cookies in my images, you'll have a portion left over. You could definitely halve the amount here and create a more traditional quantity on top of your cookies.
See recipe card for quantities.
Equipment needed to make a batch
Greaseproof paper: Lining your baking tray will make getting the soft cookies off easy.
Hand or stand mixer: To whip the cookie dough and that buttercream, this is best done with a mixer.
Mixing bowl: You’ll need one medium mixing bowl to mix the cookie dough.
Ice Cream Scoop: The scoop used here creates small cookies with a diameter of 4 centimeters or 1.57 inches scoop used here.
Fork: To create the prongs in our cookie dough which helps the cookies soak up that syrup beautifully!
Saucepan: You'll need a small saucepan to make your syrup.
Shallow bowl: A shallow bowl is best to dip and roll your cookies in the syrup.
How to make Greek Holiday Cookies:
Preheat your oven to 180C/350F and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Place the butter, olive oil and sugar into a medium bowl and beat on medium until pale, approximately 3 minutes.
Add the orange juice and ground spices, combining until smooth.
Toss in the flour and baking powder and stir until the dough forms.
Take a scoop or tablespoon and roll into a ball then shape into a nice oval by pressing the sides inwards and pressing between your hands to flatten out.
Place onto your baking tray, allowing 1 inch gap between your cookies.
Press a fork into your cookies to create 9 even prongs in the dough.
Place into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until golden.
Remove and allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before placing on a cooling tray and allowing to cool completely.
Meanwhile, place the honey, water, sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan on low heat.
Stirring until thickened, approximately 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and add in 3 tablespoons of the syrup into the walnuts, stirring to combine.
Allow the syrup to cool to lukewarm before dipping one cookie into the mixture, turning and soaking completely for 30 seconds.
Remove carefully from the syrup and place onto a lined cooling rack to set.
Repeat with the remaining cookies.
Sprinkle a pinch of walnuts on top.
Serve up.
Enjoy!
Greek Holiday Cookies
- Prep Time: 40 mintues
- Cook Time: 15 minutes per batch
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: Makes 28 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Cuisine: Greek
Description
Melt-in-your-mouth cookies soaked in a sugar syrup and topped with sticky walnuts is what this Melomakaronas - Greek Holiday Cookies recipe gives you for a real holiday cookie that will transport you to Greece.
Ingredients
Cookies
120 grams / 4.23 ounces butter, room temperature
75 grams / ¾ cup confectioner’s/icing sugar
150 milliliters / ⅔ cup - 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (135 grams)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
30 grams / 2 tablespoons orange juice
360 grams / 2 ¼ cups plain flour
6 grams / 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Honey syrup
250 milliliters / 1 cup water
150 grams / ¾ cup superfine/caster sugar
126 grams / ½ cup + 2 tablespoons honey
14 grams / 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Walnut topping
115 grams / 1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 180C/350F and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Place the butter, olive oil and sugar into a medium bowl and beat on medium until pale, approximately 3 minutes.
- Add the orange juice and ground spices, combining until smooth.
- Toss in the flour and baking powder and stir until the dough forms.
- Take a scoop or tablespoon and roll into a ball then shape into a nice oval by pressing the sides inwards and pressing between your hands to flatten out.
- Place onto your baking tray, allowing 1 inch gap between your cookies.
- Press a fork into your cookies to create 9 even prongs in the dough.
- Place into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until golden.
- Remove and allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before placing on a cooling tray and allowing to cool completely.
Honey syrup
- Meanwhile, place the honey, water , sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan on low heat.
- Stirring until thickened, approximately 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and add in 3 tablespoons of the syrup into the walnuts, stirring to combine.
- Allow the syrup to cool to lukewarm before dipping one cookie into the mixture, turning and soaking completely for 30 seconds.
- Remove carefully from the syrup and place onto a lined cooling rack to set.
- Repeat with the remaining cookies.
- Sprinkle a pinch of walnuts on top.
- Serve up.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Adapted from several sources
Nutrition
- Calories: 192 calories per cookies
Keywords: holiday cookies, nut baking, greek baking
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