If you know us, you know that December means it’s Christmas cookie season! Each year, as the holiday approaches, we look for some interesting cookie recipes that we haven’t tried before and bake them up all on one massive day in the kitchen – and then we show you our results, so you can make some cookies for yourselves. This year we made three new cookies, plus one surprise treat, so starting today we’ll showcase what we made. Today’s featured cookie is a little baked good from Greece: these melomakarona are traditionally served at this time of year, and we loved how many different flavors were packed into this recipe. Here’s how we adapted for ourselves this recipe from the New York Times.
You’ll need:
- Sugar
- Cinnamon sticks
- Cloves
- 3 oranges
- Honey
- Olive oil
- Powdered sugar
- Brandy
- Orangecello – we used some from Springbrook Hollow Farm Distillery in upstate New York
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Ground cloves
- Flour
- Semolina flour
- Baking soda
- Almonds
You’ll first want to make the syrup that these cookies are dipped in: pour 2 cups of sugar into a pan and stir with 1 1/3 cups of water, then add 2 cinnamon sticks and a single clove to the liquid. Slice one orange in half and place the halves face down into the mixture.
Then bring everything to a boil over high heat and let it cook, stirring every so often, for about 5 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and you have a clear liquid in your pan. Take the pan off the heat and stir in 1/2 cup of honey, then let this all cool while you make the cookies.
For the dough, zest a second orange into a mixing bowl, then squeeze the juice out from this orange into a measuring cup. Juice the second orange, then pour in enough orangecello to make 1 cup of liquid in total. Pour the juice into the bowl with the zest and add in 1 1/3 cups of olive oil, 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of brandy, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon each of nutmeg and ground cloves, and a large pinch of salt. Stir this all together, then in a separate bowl whisk together 3 cups of flour, one cup of semolina, and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Stir the flour mixture into your olive oil mixture until you have an even dough.
Now line some baking sheets with parchment paper and brush the paper lightly with olive oil. Scoop up pieces of dough and roll them into circles that are around 1 1/2 inches wide. Press each circle into a rounded egg shape and place these on the baking sheets about an inch apart – you should be able to get 12 cookies per sheet.
Bake at 375°F for 10 minutes, then rotate your baking sheets from the top to bottom racks in your oven and spin them front to back to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until they’re golden on top but not burned on the bottom. Meanwhile, remove the cinnamon sticks, clove, and orange halves from your syrup. Once each baking sheet comes out of the oven, place 5 or 6 cookies into the syrup, then flip them over and let them sit there for about 10 seconds before using a slotted spoon to fish them out and place them on a plate to cool.
After all your cookies have been dunked in the syrup and they’re cooled off, place them for a second round in the syrup and put them back on a plate. Now place 1/2 cup of almonds in a food processor to roughly chop them and sprinkle almonds pieces on top of each cookie. When the syrup on the cookies has fully dried, they’re ready to eat!
These were some really unique cookies, for many reasons: you’ve got a dough made from two types of flour, plus three different spices and two varieties of booze. Then you don’t just bake the cookies and they’re done – instead, you make a spiced syrup and coat the cookies twice before giving them an almond topping. It’s a little labor intensive, but it makes for something really cool. The dough itself isn’t particularly sweet, but thankfully the syrup adds in the sweet flavor that you expect from a cookie, plus you get a little bit of crunch on top. We’re glad we got the chance to try and experiment with these Greek cookies, and they’re definitely an interesting treat to serve up for the holidays.