Self Improvement with Irinä: Recipes : Traditional greek candies for Winter Holidays : MELOMAKARONA

Hey there :)

Christmas just passed and we are really close to the Year's change so here is a recipe of my favorite candy that we make during X-mas and New Year's Eve holidays in Greece :)

It's not that hard to make them and if you like honey you're gonna loooooooooooove them :)

Are you ready? Here we go :)

You will need (norwegian translation in brackets ) :

FOR THE COOKIES

2 cups of olive oil (oliveolje )
100 mL water ( vann )
4 cups of flour ( mel ) ( i actually added at least two more in the end but you will see how it will turn out )
4 big spoons of semolina ( semulegryn )
1 big cup of sugar ( sukker ) - I also used a little bit more since i used more flour
2 spoons of baking powder
Peel by two oranges ( appelsinskall )
2 big glasses of fresh orange juice ( appelsin juice )
4 small spoons of cinnamon ( kanel ) - you can use more if you want to
1 small spoon of carnation -powder format- ( nellik )
3 small spoons of nutmeg ( muskat )
1 big glass of smashed nuts
1 tiny glass ( 30 mL is enough ) of koniak ( konjiak )

FOR THE SYROP :

2 glasses of water ( vann )
2 glasses of sugar ( sukker )
1 glass of glycose ( glykose )
2 big spoons of honey ( honning )
1 cinnamon stick ( kanel stick )
1/2 orange ( appelsin )

ALSO FOR THE DECORATION :

At least 500gr honey ( honning )
Enough of the nuts you smashed earlier

HOW TO DO IT :

At first we are making the syrop . Start by boiling 1/2 glass of water with the glycose until they mix up completely . Then add the rest ingredients for the syrop ( rest of the water.sugar.honey,cinnamon stick and orange ) and let it boil for 8 minutes. Then you have to leave it somewhere to cool down because it needs to be cold when you will use it .
Then it's time for the dough . In a bowl we stir the olive oil with a hand mixer for 10 minutes ( olive oil needs this process so it can be lighter and easier to use since is too heavy on its own )
After 10 minutes of stirring we add the following ingredients : sugar , water , orangejuice and peels , koniak and all th spices .
In another BIG bowl we mix the flour , semolina and baking powder so they mix up all together.
We are making a big hole in the center of the flour mixture and we are adding all the liquid ingredients from the previous bowl . We are stirring everything using our hands and we add 1\3 of the smashed nuts inside making sure it will go everywhere through the dough.
The dough is ready to make the cookies . If it's too liquid ( mine was way too much - add as much flour as you need so the dough will be easy to work with and make the cookies )

This could be me , for sure ahahahha
Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees.
Place some baking paper on large oven dishes and put your cookies on them ( leave some space in between because my cookies got insta big ) . TIP !! Make some holes with a fork so your cookies will be perfectly baked and will absorb better the syrop later ;)
Bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes .
When you take them out of the oven , when they are still too hot sink each one in the cold syrop for a second and let them stay back on the baking paper for a couple of minutes.

Couldn't stop laughing with those accidentally made faces huhuhhuhuh
At last , place them in a big plate , throw really much honey on each one , also pour cinnamon ( powder format ) and smashed nuts and voila ^_^