Greek Walnut Spice Cookies aka “Melomakarona”
A flavorful spiced cookie drenched with honey syrup fitting for any special day
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
- 1½ 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
- 1¼ 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.