Melomakarona: Greek Honey Cookies with Walnuts and Orange

Melomakarona are the honey cookies of a Greek Christmas. The dough is made with olive oil rather than butter, scented with orange, cinnamon and cloves, and the baked cookies are dipped in honey syrup and finished with chopped walnuts. The first part of the name, meli, simply means honey. In many Greek homes they are baked in large batches in December alongside kourabiedes, the powdered-sugar butter cookies, and offered to every visitor over the holidays. On New Year’s Day the table adds vasilopita, the cake with a hidden coin.

Melomakarona recipe

Serves: about 40 cookies. Prep: 40 minutes. Cook: 20–25 minutes per tray. Total: about 2 hours, including cooling and soaking.

Ingredients

Cookies

• 1 cup (240 ml) extra virgin olive oil, such as our Rapti Koroneiki olive oil
• ½ cup (100 g) sugar
• ½ cup (120 ml) fresh orange juice
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 2 tbsp brandy or extra orange juice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• About 4 cups (500 g) plain (all-purpose) flour
• ½ cup (85 g) fine semolina

Honey syrup

• 1 cup (340 g) honey, such as our Kalymnos thyme honey
• 1 cup (200 g) sugar
• 1 cup (240 ml) water
• 1 cinnamon stick and a strip of orange peel

Topping

• 1 cup (120 g) walnuts, finely chopped
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Make the syrup first: simmer the sugar, water, cinnamon stick and orange peel for 5 minutes, take off the heat and stir in the honey. Let it cool completely.
2. Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C, 160°C fan) and line two baking trays.
3. Whisk the olive oil, sugar, orange juice, zest and brandy until the sugar starts to dissolve. Stir in the cinnamon and cloves.
4. Mix the flour, semolina, baking powder and baking soda. Add to the wet ingredients gradually and stir just until you have a soft, slightly oily dough. Do not knead it; overworking makes the cookies hard.
5. Take walnut-sized pieces (about 25 g), shape them into ovals and press the tops lightly with a fork. Place them on the trays.
6. Bake for 20–25 minutes until golden brown. Let them cool for a few minutes.
7. While the cookies are still warm, dip them a few at a time into the cool syrup for 20–30 seconds, turning once, then lift them onto a rack.
8. Sprinkle with the walnuts mixed with cinnamon. Let them set for at least an hour before serving.

Hot cookies, cool syrup

The golden rule of syrup-soaked Greek sweets is that one part must be hot and the other cool. For melomakarona, dip warm cookies into syrup that has cooled to room temperature. The cookie drinks up the syrup without falling apart and stays slightly crisp outside. If both are hot, the cookies turn soggy; if both are cold, the syrup just coats the surface. The same idea applies to baklava, where cool syrup goes over hot pastry.

How long you soak them is a matter of taste. A quick 20-second dip gives a drier cookie with a honeyed shell; a minute or more gives the soft, syrupy texture many families prefer. Try one or two first, break them open, and adjust the time for the rest of the batch.

Why olive oil, orange and semolina?

Melomakarona are traditionally made with oil, which keeps them free of butter and suitable for the Christmas fasting period that many Orthodox Greeks observe. A mild, fruity Greek extra virgin olive oil works well; if yours is very peppery, you can replace up to half with a neutral oil. Fresh orange juice and zest give the cookies their aroma. A little fine semolina makes the crumb more open and absorbent, so it takes the syrup better. If you can’t find it, use the same weight of extra flour.

Choosing the honey

The syrup is where honey matters most. A strongly flavoured honey such as Greek thyme honey gives a floral, slightly herbal note; a milder honey keeps the spices in front. Our guide to Greek thyme honey describes the flavour, and if your jar has set solid, here is how to decrystallize honey gently before using it. Stir the honey into the syrup off the heat, after the sugar has dissolved, rather than boiling it hard.

If you want to reduce the sugar in the syrup and use more honey, the National Honey Board suggests starting by swapping honey for up to half the sugar in a recipe, since honey tastes sweeter than sugar. See our honey substitute guide for more on swapping sweeteners. Honey should not be given to babies under one year old because of the risk of infant botulism.

Tips for perfect melomakarona

• Mix by hand, gently. Stop as soon as the dough comes together. It should feel soft and oily, not elastic.
• Shape evenly. Weighing the first few pieces helps all the cookies bake at the same rate.
• Bake until properly golden. Pale cookies go soft and pasty in the syrup.
• Allergens: these contain wheat and walnuts. Walnuts are a tree nut, one of the nine major food allergens listed by the US FDA, so label them if you give them as gifts.

Storing melomakarona

Keep them in an airtight tin at room temperature, in a single layer or separated with baking paper, for about two weeks. They taste even better on the second day, once the syrup has settled through the crumb. Avoid the fridge, which makes them hard. You can also freeze the baked, undipped cookies and dip them in syrup after thawing.

Serve melomakarona with a small cup of Greek coffee or tea. For a tour of the classics, see our guide to Greek desserts. For more honey sweets, see ourloukoumades recipe, the Greek pantry recipes and the Greek honey collection.

Sources

• National Honey Board: Honey FAQ (cooking with honey, infants and honey)
• US FDA: Food allergies, what you need to know (the 9 major food allergens)

Melomakarona: frequently asked questions