Happy holidays to you all! (Kales Giortes!) Are you ready for Christmas?!!  In today’s post, I want to share my favorite melomakarona flavors along with a tried-and-tested recipe that’s incredibly easy to make—one I’ve updated over the years. I’ve finally found the secret ingredient for perfect melomakarona: semolina.

Why semolina? Semolina is a common ingredient in Greek cooking. Semolina is made from wheat durum. Commonly used in making pasta, cakes, cookies, and more. I find by adding semolina to melomakarona makes the cookies melt in your mouth. This is my go-to melomakarona recipe, especially during the holidays.

Don’t forget to try out the “chocolate melomakarona”  and the white chocolate with raspberry drizzle which you will below.

Melomakarona~ Greek Honey Dipped Christmas Cookies

Tried and tested thousands of times and it always works!

Servings: 45-60 cookies depending on size

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups light olive oil (see notes)
• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick) at room temperature
• 1 cup of orange juice or beer (see notes)
• 2 teaspoons of orange zest
• 1 cup of organic sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon powder
• 2 teaspoons of ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 cups of fine semolina flour
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 pinch of kosher salt

Syrup:

• 2 1/2 cups of water
• 2 1/2 cups of organic sugar
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1 peel of orange zest
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of brandy

Topping:

Honey syrup, finely chopped walnuts, and cinnamon powder.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the oil, butter, orange juice or beer, orange zest, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla in a mixer. Whisk for a few minutes or until combined.
2. Whisk together the semolina, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients while the mixer is running. Once the dough starts to form then stop the mixer and place the dough into a lightly greased bowl. Let rest for about 30 minutes.
3. Prepare the syrup. Place the syrup ingredients into a medium-sized pot. When the mixture starts to simmer place it on low and let it cook for 5 minutes until thickened.
4. Once the dough has rested, prepare to shape it into oval cookies. Gather about 1½ tablespoons of dough, roll it into a ball, then gently flatten it with your hands and shape it into an oval. Repeat with the remaining dough and place the cookies onto a baking sheet. Using a fork, gently press small divots or create a crisscross pattern on the tops.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Once baked, remove the cookies from the oven and immediately place them into the syrup. Let them soak for about 2 minutes, turning them so both sides absorb the syrup. Remove and transfer the cookies to a serving plate.

To serve: Sprinkle with toasted walnuts and powdered cinnamon.

Make Chocolate Melomakarona

Chocolate Melomakarona

To make these rich and yummy chocolate melomakarona simply follow the recipe above and add 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to the dry mix ingredients. Reduce the flour to 5 and 3/4 cups. This is because you are adding cocoa powder to the mixture.

 

Before making the melomakarona dough here are some notes:

• We use a mixture of olive oil and butter in the melomakarona dough because it creates a lovely texture. If you prefer, you can omit the butter and use 2 cups of olive oil or vegetable oil instead. Often, I like to use 1 cup of olive oil and 1 cup of vegetable oil—but I’ve also made these using only olive oil, and they turn out perfect every time.
• Beer or orange juice? We like to use either or because both work really well. The beer helps with the rise of these cookies, and it makes for a lovely texture. If you prefer orange juice, that works well too.
• If you find that the cookies need a higher temperature in the oven for the last 5 minutes, turn up the heat to 400 degrees. Make sure the cookies are a light golden brown color.

 

Happy Holidays!

Make White Chocolate with Raspberry Drizzle Melomakarona Cookies 

To make these rich and delicious white chocolate & raspberry drizzle melomakarona, simply follow the recipe above as written. There’s no need to change the base recipe; however, if you find the syrup too sweet, you may reduce the amount of honey and sugar. Keep in mind that these cookies will be on the sweeter side due to the white chocolate and raspberry drizzle.

Prepare the raspberry sauce first. Then make the white chocolate sauce, as white chocolate can be more delicate and slightly harder to work with.

Raspberry Coulis Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of organic sugar
• 1/4 cup of water
• 2 cups of raspberries (you can use fresh or frozen)
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Method:

1. Add all the ingredients over the stovetop in a medium pot. Cook over medium heat until the mixture becomes thick. About 18-20 minutes.
2. Once the mixture is thick, remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly. Strain the coulis through a fine mesh strainer. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

 

White Chocolate Sauce Recipe

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups of Ghirardelli white chocolate chips for melting

Method:

1. Melt the white chocolate over a bain-marie, following the melting instructions on the package.
2. Once the white chocolate is ready, gather the cookies. Note: Remove any excess honey from the cookies, as this will prevent the white chocolate from sticking. I like to gently pat the cookies dry to make sure they are not dripping with honey before coating them in white chocolate.
3. Dip the cookies into the white chocolate and allow them to cool. Once the white chocolate has fully set, drizzle the cookies with the raspberry sauce.
4. These cookies resemble a candy cane, so most people assume they’re peppermint-flavored. But once they take a bite, you can trick them—and watch their faces light up as they say, “Ohhh, I love these raspberry white chocolate cookies!”

Merry Christmas from Kouzounas Kitchen!

 

**Recipe updated December 19th 2025