Greek Walnut Spice Cookies aka “Melomakarona”

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These Greek Walnut Spice Cookies (Melomakarona) are out of this world good! Melomakarona is a traditional greek cookie drizzled with honey syrup served around Christmas time but we strongly believe these should be made all year round. Since Ramadan is around the corner we thought we would share this cookie spiced with clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg with all of you. It’s super easy to make with no fancy equipment or ingredients needed. They have an amazingly soft texture and let’s not forget the intoxicating smell these cookies fill your house with as they bake. Trust us, give these a try!

Recipes that have a little bit of history are always more special. This recipe was taken from a friend “Maria” ten years ago and was written on a shabby overused piece of paper, Maria took it from her friend “Julia” who took it from her mom who took it from an aunt in Greece. We have made it the same way ever since, never changed it, and it comes out perfect every single time!

INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING GREEK WALNUT SPICE COOKIES

Ingredients

MAKING THE MELOMAKARONA

There are only two steps to making these cookies and they are both easy and fast. We need to make the Greek Walnut Spice Cookies and the Honey Syrup for soaking the cookies.

THE HONEY SYRUP

This is a very simple sweet syrup that we will use to drizzle the cookies with later. It is similar to syrups we use in the region on things like konafa, basboosa etc. If your feeling adventurous this is the time to use all the wonderful infused honey that have recently come to market. We used honey infused with cinnamon, but lemon, ginger, and vanilla would all work beautifully.

Add your honey, water, and sugar to a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer to a thin-medium consistency. An easy way to test when it’s done is to take a teaspoon of your syrup and pour it onto your kitchen counter. It will quickly cool, when it just starts to hold its shape it’s ready. The consistency should be thin but not watery.

Honey Syrup

MAKING THE GREEK WALNUT SPICE COOKIES

Preheat your oven to 170 C°, if you have the fan option that’s the best way to go. For conventional ovens use the same temperature but we need to be cautious as it might take less time to bake.

In one bowl whisk together the oil, orange juice, sugar, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg until the sugar has dissolved.

In a second bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

Dry and Wet Ingredients

Pour the liquid mixture on top of the flour mixture, mix by hand until everything is well incorporated.

Mold your cookies by pressing 2 teaspoons of the mixture into the palm of your hand, gently roll the cookie into a ball. Try not to over pat them in your hand as we need a porous surface to absorb the honey syrup later.

Sprinkle on some of your finely chopped walnuts and bake in your preheated oven 17-20 minutes. Make sure you do not over-bake. Use the color on the bottom of the cookies as your indicator, it should be golden brown.

ASSEMBLY

When soaking the cookies with syrup we need a contrast in temperature. Cooled cookies with hot syrup or warm cookies with cooled syrup. You can choose either.

Take some of your cooled cookies and lower them directly into the warm syrup toss them around a couple of times so they can properly absorb the syrup before placing them on your serving plate. Some walnuts might fall off when you do this just sprinkle on little extra walnut once they are one the plate. Serve with extra warm syrup on the side.

Greek Walnut Spice Cookies aka Melomakarona
Greek Walnut Spice Cookies aka Melomakarona
Greek Walnut Spice Cookies aka Melomakarona

If you make these Greek Walnut Spice Cookies aka “Melomakarona” please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #thetablediaries on Instagram. We love seeing all the recipes you and your family enjoy.

Greek Walnut Spice Cookies aka “Melomakarona”

A flavorful spiced cookie drenched with honey syrup fitting for any special day
Servings 42 cookies
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

FOR THE COOKIES

  • 360 grams all-purpose flour 3 cups
  • 93 grams sugar ¼ cup plus 2 tbsp
  • ¾ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp baking soda full scoop not leveled
  • 1⅛ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ cup orange juice
  • tsp cinnamon
  • ¾ tsp ground clove
  • ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 170 grams finely chopped walnuts 1 cup

FOR THE HONEY SYRUP

  • ¼ cup honey
  • 300 grams sugar 1½ cups
  • cup water

Instructions

FOR THE COOKIES

  • Preheat your oven to 170 C°, if you have the fan option that's the best way to go. For conventional (gas) ovens use the same temperature but we need to be cautious as it might take less time to bake.
  • In one bowl whisk together the oil, orange juice, sugar, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg until the sugar has dissolved.
  • In a second bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
  • Pour the liquid mixture on top of the flour mixture, mix by hand until everything is well incorporated and the dough has absorbed the liquid.
  • Mold your cookies by pressing 2 teaspoons of the mixture into the palm of your hand, gently roll the cookie into a ball. Try not to over pat them in your hand as we need a porous surface to absorb the honey syrup later.
  • Sprinkle on your finely chopped walnuts.
  • Bake in your preheated oven for 17-20 minutes. Make sure you do not over-bake. Use the color on the bottom of the cookies as your indicator, it should be a golden brown.

MAKING THE HONEY SYRUP

  • Add your honey, water, and sugar to a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer to a thin-medium consistency. An easy way to test when it's done is to take a teaspoon of your syrup and pour it onto your kitchen counter. It will quickly cool when it just starts to hold its shape it's ready. The consistency should be thin but not watery.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

  • When soaking the cookies with syrup we need a contrast in temperature. Cooled cookies with hot syrup or hot cookies with cooled syrup.
  • Take some of your cooled cookies and lower them directly into the warm syrup toss them around a couple of times so they can properly absorb the syrup before placing them on your serving plate. Some walnuts might fall off when you do this just sprinkle them with a little extra walnut once they are on the plate. Serve with extra warm syrup on the side.
  • Keep the leftover syrup stored in an airtight container. Later you can top leftover cookies off with more syrup before serving.

Storage

  • These cookies keep really well for a long time if stored in an airtight container on the kitchen counter. Best to be eaten within 3-4 days.
Course: Dessert

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