Christmas Cookies! The traditional Greek Melomakarona

Merry Christmas!καλά Χριστούγεννα! Hyvaa joulua! Sarbatori Fericite! God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt Εr! Chuc Mung Giang Sinh! Sawadee Pee Mai! Feliz Navidad! Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva s Novim Godom! Froehliche Weihnachten! Joyeux Noλl ! Maligayang Pasko!Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand! Selamat Hari Natal! Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia!


Yesterday, was the day to make some cookies. I am not a big cookies eater but I do like to keep some traditions. The "melomakarona", the Greek traditional Christmas cookies is one custom I follow every year. When I was a child. me and my lovely Grandmother we were making melomakarona on the 20th of December. Yesterday was 23rd but she won't mind I guess.

Here is what we need for the dough:

1/ 1/2 cup of fine semolina

all purpose flour ( as needed, it might be up to 4 cups)

2 oranges and 1 lemon ( the juice and the peel crumbs)

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
  
1/2 teaspoon of cloves ( powder)         

1/2 spoon baking soda

1/2 cup of warm water

2 cups of olive oil

2 tablespoons of brandy

1/2 cup of sugar

For the syrup we need:

4 cups of water

1/2 cup of honey

2-3 cloves, 2 sticks of cinnamon( or powder)

1/4 of lemon,     2 1/2 cups of sugar

In a mixing bowl combine the olive oil and the sugar. mix well and add the soda and the juice( lemon + orange). The juice with the soda will create bubbles, that's good! Then, add the semolina, the orange and lemon peel crumbs,the water, the brandy. Mix well. Now, add the flour. Cup by Cup.
Mix with your well-washed hands! Add the flour as needed until the dough is not sticky on your fingers.  The dough is kind of oily but doesn't matter. Now shape the dough into long fat fingers and place them on parchment paper in a pan. (I use a fork to "mark" them .Do it, it's fan!). Bake them in a hot oven around 350 F (170 C) for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile the melomakarona are in the oven prepare the syrup. Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to boil. (If you use the honey will be some foam, remove the foam). Let it boil in low fire until our cookies are baked and remove from the fire.. Now remove the cookies from the oven, give them a bath in the hot syrup, deep them in for a minute, not longer. Put the cookies in a serving platter, season with some honey and crushed walnuts! READY!!!

Enjoy, this is my favorite season dessert, I hope you will like! The texture is crispy and has the syrup in the middle! Marvelous!


Emmanuel~