Melomakarona

Oil-based biscuits dunked hot into cold syrup, where the temperature difference is the only thing that gets the honey inside them.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains honey.

Ingredients

For the biscuits

• 350 ml olive oil
• 150 ml orange juice
• 100 g caster sugar
• zest of 2 oranges
• 600 g plain flour
• 150 g fine semolina
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 60 ml brandy

For the syrup

• 400 g sugar
• 400 ml water
• 300 g honey
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 strip orange peel

To finish

• 200 g walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

1. HOT BISCUITS INTO COLD SYRUP, and here it is the biscuit that is hot rather than the pastry. The rule is the same one the filo desserts on this site follow and the reason is identical: a steep temperature difference draws syrup in, while hot into hot simply floods the surface and leaves the middle dry. Make the syrup first and let it go completely cold.
2. THERE IS NO BUTTER AND NO EGG, which is why these keep for weeks where a buttery biscuit goes stale in days. It also means the dough must NOT be kneaded: oil-based doughs toughen fast, and these are brought together with the fingertips and stopped the moment the flour disappears.
3. Syrup first: sugar, water, cinnamon and peel boiled 5 minutes, then the honey stirred in off the heat. Cooled completely and the solids removed.
4. Oil, orange juice, sugar, zest and brandy whisked together until the sugar has dissolved.
5. Flour, semolina, raising agents and spices mixed separately, then tipped into the wet and brought together WITH THE FINGERTIPS only, until there is no dry flour left. It will be soft and slightly oily. Stop.
6. Rested 15 minutes.
7. Rolled into ovals about 5 cm long, flattened slightly, and a fork pressed across the top of each -- the grooves hold syrup.
8. Baked at 180C for 25 minutes until firm, dry and evenly brown. THEY MUST BE PROPERLY DRY: an underbaked biscuit collapses into mush in the syrup.
9. Straight from the oven, six at a time, into the COLD syrup. 20 seconds, turned once, and lifted out with a slotted spoon onto a rack over a tray.
10. ANY LONGER AND THEY DISINTEGRATE. Twenty seconds looks far too short and is correct; they go on absorbing for an hour afterwards.
11. Walnuts mixed with the cinnamon and scattered thickly over while they are still wet.
12. Left 4 hours before eating. They keep a month in a tin and improve for the first week.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes