Greek Holiday Cookies
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.
Servings 28 cookies
Calories 192kcal
Ingredients
Cookies
- 120 grams / 4.23 ounces butter room temperature
- 75 grams / ¾ cup confectioner’s/icing sugar
- 150 milliliters / ? 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!
Video
Notes
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
Nutrition
Calories: 192kcal