MELOMAKARONA: GREEK HONEY COOKIES

Christmas Recipes, Cookies, Dessert, Greek Classics, Holiday Recipes

Melomakarona are Greek honey soaked cookies topped with spiced walnuts that have all the flavors of baklava!!

Watch the Video:

Melomakarona are Greek honey cookies traditionally served at Christmas and the recipe has all the delicious flavors of baklava. They’re baked until golden and crisp, then soaked in aromatic honey syrup and garnished with spiced ground walnuts. I make mine a little bit different than the traditional way because ever since I was a little girl I always loved the most syrupy melomakarona. I would search for the plate for them. So, now I just make all of them moist syrupy, and delicious! You’ll see what I mean when you make these.

Why everyone will love Melomakarona Greek Honey Cookies

Orange flavor burst
Moist honey-soaked soft center cookie
Covered in baklava flavor
The best honey syrup-soaked baklava orange cookies ever!!

Almost vegan & easily vegan

Melomakarona cookies are made with olive oil instead of butter and eggs. The honey syrup makes them very decadent, but they can easily be made vegan by substituting either maple syrup or equal amounts of granulated sugar for the honey. Yes, honey is NOT vegan. I just learned that too!

Greek Orange Honey Cookies with Walnuts

For the dough:

All-purpose flour
Baking soda
Baking powder
Extra virgin olive oil
Olive oil or vegetable oil
Sugar
Orange juice
Zest of 2 oranges – always zest citrus before juicing

For the syrup:

Sugar
Water
Honey –Greek honey is the best!

For the garnish:

Ground walnuts
Ground cinnamon
Ground cloves

How to make Melomakarona Greek Honey Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 °F, 180 °C.
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and orange zest in a bowl.
Combine the oil and sugar in another bowl by whisking until the sugar has dissolved.
Mix the orange juice and the baking soda in a small bowl until combined and bubbly, and then add it to the oil mixture.
Then, add the oil/juice mixture to the flour mixture and mix until a dough is formed. Be careful not to overmix so that the oil does not separate from the dough. If the dough seems a bit too dry and crumbly, add 2-3 tablespoons of orange juice and knead together with a spatula or your hands.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface, compress it and form a circle.
Then, roll out to ½ inch in thickness. Do not use any additional flour to do this.
Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out the cookies and place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Use a fork to make marks on each cookie.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

While the cookies are baking, make the syrup.

Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir continuously until the sugar dissolves.
Then, remove it from the heat and stir in the honey until incorporated.

As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, put them all together in one of the trays and pour the hot syrup over them.
After 15 minutes, carefully flip each cookie over so that both sides absorb the syrup.
Allow the cookies to absorb the syrup in the pan for at least 1 hour.

Baklava Topping

Combine ground walnuts, cinnamon, and clove powder and mix well.
Sprinkle this garnish over each cookie.

Make ahead!

These classic Greek cookies stay fresh for up to 2 weeks at room temperature in an airtight container. However, you can even make an extra batch to eat later. Just cool your cookies without syrup and store them in an airtight container up to 3 weeks. When you’re ready to serve them, make the syrup and soak them in it for 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle your topping on and serve!

Serving

A trick I use for the cookie topping is adding the cinnamon and clove powder to my food processor when grinding my walnuts. It blends everything together for me and does a much better job combining the flavors, so each cookie tastes like baklava! Call some friends over and serve with tea and Greek coffee.