Melomakarona - The Greek Christmas Cookies in their Vegan Version
Traditional Greek Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 600 gr of sifted flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp of clove powder
Liquid/wet ingredients
- 250 ml of olive oil
- 200 ml of orange juice
- 50 ml of brandy
For the syrup
- 300 ml of water
- 300 gr of brown sugar
- 150 ml of agave syrup
- 1 cinnamon stick
For the decoration
- crushed walnuts
- 250 gr of chocolate if you want to taste half of them with chocolate topping
Instructions
For the vegan melomakarona
- Put all the dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix them. Do the same with the liquid ones.
- Add the liquid mixture in the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix first with a spatula, and then with your hands. Do not overmix them though.
- Preheat the oven at 180° (fan).
- Take a small amount of the dough and give your melomakarona an oval shape. You can make them bigger or smaller. Remember however to give them all about the same size, so they cook the same way.
- Put parchment paper in a baking tray and place the melomakarona there.
- Pierce the surface of each melomakarono with a fork. This will help later during the syrup process.
- Once the oven is preheated, place the pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until they become golden brown. Depending on your oven, they might need a bit less or more time to cook.
- When they are ready, remove them from the oven, and let them cool at room temperature.
For the syrup
- Boil up the water, the sugar, and the cinnamon stick for about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the agave syrup and simmer for another 1-2 minutes.
- Remove from heat, and let the pan aside.
For the decoration
- Dip each melomakarono in the pan with the warm syrup for about 30 seconds from each side.
- Place them on a big plate.
- After dipping all your melomakarona, you can use a little bit of the remaining syrup over them on the plate.
- If you prepare half of them with chocolate topping, melt the chocolate over a bain-marie and drizzle or dip them into the melted chocolate.
- Sprinkle with the crushed walnuts.
Notes
- Regarding brown sugar: brown sugar is often white processed sugar that has acquired the brown color due to coloring. We’re using brown, not refined, organic sugar.
- The dough in our melomakarona doesn’t have sugar, so if you want them sweeter, you can increase the quantity of syrup you put in the end, on your plate. The melomakarona will absorb the syrup and they will become softer and sweeter the next day. Every day, they become better.