Happy holidays to you all! (Kales Giortes.) I hope you are having a great start to December. In today’s post, I want to share a NEW melomakarona recipe that is so easy to make. One that I have updated throughout the years. I finally found the secret ingredient to melomakarona: SEMOLINA. Yes, the wonderful semolina which is damn hard for me to find especially in Pollock Pines.

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” which you will find the notes below.

Melomakarona~ Greek Honey Dipped Christmas Cookies

Servings: 60-70 cookies depending on size

Ingredients:

• 2 cups light olive oil
• 1 cup of orange juice
• 1/2 cup of brandy
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 4 teaspoons of cinnamon powder ( Prefer Saigon powder)
• 2 teaspoons of ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
• 1 cup of organic sugar
• 1 teaspoon of orange zest
• 1 1/2 cup of semolina
• 6 cups all-purpose flour

Syrup:

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

Topping:

Honey syrup, finely chopped walnuts, and cinnamon powder.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the oil, orange juice, orange zest, brandy, 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 dough into oblong shapes. Gather about 1.5 tablespoons of dough and roll it into an oblong shape. Repeat with the rest of the dough then place it onto the baking sheet. With a fork make little divets or criss-cross patterns into the cookie dough.
5. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Once the cookies are done, remove the pan and pour the hot syrup over the top of the cookies. I let the cookies get drenched in syrup so that each side is soaked in the syrup. You can flip the cookies to ensure they get syrup on both sides.

To serve: Sprinkle with toasted walnuts and powdered cinnamon.

The best honey I recommend is one called Tragano. Tragano Greek organic Cretan thyme honey. The honey is made from Manolis Stefanakis, who has an estate where three generations of beekeeping comes from in Heraklion.

You can purchase this honey from Zelos Foods here.

Make Chocolate Melomakarona

Notes:

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.

Happy Holidays!