Melomakarona : a Greek traditional festive recipe!

Every time I dig into my recipe files, this recipe always pops up. It goes back to when my grandmother was 22 years old, just married to my grandfather and ready to celebrate their first Christmas together. Melomakarona was a Greek popular festive treat that every traditional house made back then. And it still is in many households today. My grandmother found a simple recipe in a local magazine, made a few tweaks and that’s what I am sharing here with you.

If a treat including honey, walnuts and olive oil sounds good to you, you are not the only one. Once you taste it, you can’t have just one piece. There are no winter holidays in my life that I haven’t eaten a whole batch in a couple of days. Trust me! One batch is nothing! You have to make two or more!

Feel free to experiment and make the changes you like. You can add spices like ground clove or ginger. You can also cover each piece with dark or milk chocolate. Enjoy!

Photo from personal record of mindyourbrownie

Melomakarona

makes 30 pieces

 

Dough

1 cup (250 ml) fine olive oil

½ cup (110 gr) brown sugar

4 tablespoons orange juice / clementine juice, preferably freshly squeezed

3 tablespoons brandy

4 cups (560 gr) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

 

Syrup

½ cup (170gr) honey

½ cup (100gr) brown sugar

½ cup water (120ml) at room temperature

walnuts finely chopped

 

Instructions

Melomakarona Dough

1.   1. Preheat the oven to 340ºF (170ºC).

2. In a medium bowl, mix the olive oil, the brandy, the orange juice and the brown sugar together until well combined. In another bowl, sift the flour and then add the soda and the ground cinnamon. Mix them well. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and knead until the dough is firm.

3. Form melomakarona the size between a teaspoon and a tablespoon ½ inch (1cm) thick. Lay them on an oven tray covered with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes.

 

 

Syrup

1.   1. Put all the ingredients together in a small pot onto the stove and let them boil for 5 minutes. Pour the hot syrup on the melomakarona that have just come out of the oven (2 tablespoons on each one).

2.  2. Let them cool down for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts on top. Decorate in a tray, sprinkle some more walnuts on top and cover with some cling film.

 

Note: Melomakarona will keep for up to 2 weeks at room temperature.