From Newsgroup: rec.food.cooking

MELOMACARONA
Traditional Greek Christmas cookies soaked in honey syrup

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Melomacarona are a traditional Greek Christmas sweet, commonly eaten during the holiday season along with kourabiedes. The name suggests “honey macaroons,” although these cookies are not actually macaroons.

Yield

Makes about 40 pieces.

Ingredients

Cookie Dough

* 1 1/2 cups olive oil, 400 ml
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 120 g, at room temperature
* 1 cup beer, 250 ml
* 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 4 ml
* 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1 ml
* Grated peel of 1 orange
* 1 cup sugar, 200 g
* 2 cups finely ground semolina, 350 g
* 6 cups flour, 600 g
* 1/2 tsp baking soda, 2.5 ml
* 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2.5 ml
* 1 tsp salt, 5 ml

Honey Syrup and Topping

* 1 1/2 cups sugar, 300 g, for the syrup
* 1 1/2 cups honey, 500 g
* 1 cup water, 250 ml
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 60 g

Method

1. Put the olive oil, butter, beer, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, and sugar in a mixing bowl.

2. Beat until thoroughly blended.

3. Sift about 1 cup of the flour with the baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

4. Blend the sifted flour mixture into the wet mixture.

5. Add the semolina, 1 cup at a time, mixing it into the dough.

6. Add enough of the remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough becomes rather firm. You may need a little more or less flour than the amount listed.

7. Use your hands for the later mixing, since an electric mixer will not be useful after the first few cups of flour have been added.

8. Roll the dough into cylinders about 2 inches / 5 cm long and 1 inch / 2-3 cm in diameter.

9. Flatten the cylinders gently with your hands.

10. Place them on cookie sheets greased with a little olive oil.

11. Bake at 350 F / 175 C for 30 minutes.

12. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for about 30 minutes.

13. Make the syrup: mix the syrup sugar, honey, and water.

14. Bring the syrup mixture to a boil.

15. Cook over low heat for 3 minutes.

16. Skim off the foam that forms on top.

17. Pour the hot syrup over the cooled cookies.

18. Sprinkle the cookies with chopped walnuts.

19. Let the cookies soak overnight.

Notes

You can use flour instead of semolina, but only as a last resort. The semolina gives the cookies their distinctive grainy texture.

The amounts given here are for only half a recipe. The contributor notes that since it is very hard to eat only one melomacarono, making the full recipe may not be as outrageous as it sounds.

The cookies are shaped by hand into small flattened cylinders, then baked before being soaked. They are not drop cookies.

The syrup step defines the finished texture. The cookies are baked, cooled, then soaked with hot honey syrup and left overnight so they become glossy, fragrant, and sweet.

The flavor profile is built around olive oil, butter, beer, orange peel, cinnamon, cloves, honey, and walnuts. The beer is part of the dough liquid and should not stand out as a beer flavor in the finished cookie.

The chopped walnuts are added after the hot syrup is poured over the cookies, so they stick to the honeyed surface.

Verified Recipe Note: The recipe title uses “Melomacarona.” A more common modern transliteration is “melomakarona,” and the singular form is often “melomakarono” or “melomacarono.” The original spelling is preserved here.

Verified Recipe Note: The recipe describes this as a Greek Christmas confection and names kourabiedes as the other major holiday sweet. That context is preserved here.

Verified Recipe Note: The recipe says these quantities are for half a recipe, even though this version still makes about 40 pieces.

Rating

* Difficulty: Easy to moderate
* Time: 30 minutes preparation, 30 minutes baking, 30 minutes cooling, overnight soaking
* Precision: Approximate measurement OK

Contributor

Kriton Kyrimis
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey, USA
princeton!kyrimis
[kyrimis@princeton.edu](mailto:kyrimis@princeton.edu)

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Origin Note

This recipe comes from the USENET Cookbook project, a moderated electronic recipe collection distributed through early Internet newsgroups. The original was written in the project’s structured recipe markup, where MELOMACARONA was the recipe key and D marked it as a dessert.

The preserved entry lists the recipe as last modified on 13 Dec 1987 and posted to alt.gourmand on 14 Dec 1987. It was contributed by Kriton Kyrimis of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.

This is a Greek Christmas cookie recipe built around olive oil, semolina, orange peel, warm spices, honey syrup, and chopped walnuts. Its holiday context is central: the cookies are meant to be made in quantity, soaked overnight, and served as part of the Christmas-season sweet table.

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Original Header

Path: decwrl!recipes
From: [kyrimis@Princeton.EDU](mailto:kyrimis@Princeton.EDU) (Kriton Kyrimis) Newsgroups: alt.gourmand
Subject: RECIPE: Melomacarona (Greek Christmas cookies)
Message-ID: [12242@decwrl.DEC.COM](mailto:12242@decwrl.DEC.COM)
Date: 14 Dec 87 19:59:50 GMT
Sender: [recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM](mailto:recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM)
Distribution: alt
Organization: Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
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Approved: [reid@decwrl.dec.com](mailto:reid@decwrl.dec.com)


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