Recipe for "melomacarona"

NAME

     MELOMACARONA - Traditional greek Christmas cookies soaked in
     honey syrup
     This is one of the two kinds of confection that  are  tradi-
     tionally  consumed  in large quantities in Greece during the
     holiday season (the other is  kourabiedes).  I  suppose  the
     name  translates  to  something  like  ``honey  macaroons'',
     except that they are not really macaroons. I got the  recipe
     from a greek cookbook.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 40 pieces)

     400 ml    olive oil
     120 g     unsalted butter (at room temperature)
     250 ml    beer
     4 ml      ground cinnamon
     1 ml      ground cloves
               orange peel (use the grated peel of one orange)
     200 g     sugar
     350 g     finely ground semolina
     600 g     flour
     2.5 ml    baking soda
     2.5 ml    baking powder
     5 ml      salt
     300 g     sugar (for the syrup)
     500 g     honey
     250 ml    water
     60 g      chopped walnuts

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Put the olive oil, butter, beer, cinnamon, cloves,
               orange  peel  and  sugar in a mixing bowl and beat
               until they are thoroughly blended.
          (2)  Sift about one cup of flour with the baking  soda,
               baking  powder  and  salt, and blend into the mix-
               ture.
          (3)  Add the semolina, a cup at a time, into  the  mix-
               ture.
          (4)  Add the enough of the remaining flour, a cup at  a
               time,  until  you get a rather firm dough (you may
               need a bit more or less than the amount  mentioned
               in the ingredients list). Use your hands to do the
               mixing, as an electric mixer will be useless after
               the  first  two  or  three cups of flour have been
               added.
          (5)  Roll the dough into cylinders, about 5 cm long and
               2 -3 cm in diameter, flatten them with your hands,
               and place them on cookie  sheets  greased  with  a
               little  olive  oil. Bake at 175 deg. C for half an
               hour.
          (6)  Remove the cookies from the  oven,  and  let  them
               cool for about half an hour.
          (7)  Make the syrup: mix the sugar,  honey  and  water,
               and  bring  them  to a boil.  Cook on low heat for
               three minutes and skim off the foam that forms  on
               top.
          (8)  Pour the hot syrup over the cookies, sprinkle them
               with  the  chopped walnuts and let them soak over-
               night.

NOTES

     You can use flour instead of semolina, but only  as  a  last
     resort,  as  you  won't be able to get that wonderful grainy
     texture which you get if you use semolina.
     The amounts given here are for only half a recipe. Consider-
     ing  that it is very hard to eat only one melomacarono, mak-
     ing the full recipe may not be as outrageous as it sounds!

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