Greek Melomakarona recipe for Christmas

If there is one time of the year when the house should have beautiful and sweet smells, it is Christmas! I followed Stelios Parliaros’ recipe for melomakarona to make melomakarona and make the house smell like Christmas!

What are Greek Melomakarona?

I copy from Wikipedia’s Melomakarono.

“The melomakarono (Greek: μελομακάρονο plural: μελομακάρονα, melomakarona) is an egg-shaped Greek dessert made mainly from flour, olive oil, and honey. They are also known as finikia.

Historically, melomakarona are thought to be derived from the ancient and medieval makaria, which were eaten during funerals. Gradual changes in the recipe and the addition of dipping them in honey led to melomakarona which etymologically is derived from the Greek word for honey “meli” and “makaria”.

Typical ingredients of the melomakarono are flour or semolina, sugar, orange zest and/or fresh juice, cognac (or similar beverage), cinnamon and olive oil.[5][6] During rolling they are often filled with ground walnuts. Immediately after baking, they are immersed for a few seconds in cold syrup made of honey and sugar dissolved in water. Finally, they are decorated with ground, as well as bigger pieces of walnut. Dark chocolate-covered melomakarona are also a more recent variation of the traditional recipe.”

There is no excuse for not backing melomakarona in Christmas!

And don’t tell me you have no time to bake… That’s an excuse. Especially if you have small children in the house, don’t even think about it! Those delightful smells and the atmosphere they will create in the house will be indelibly etched in their memory.

The easiest way to create a Christmas atmosphere at home is to make melomakarona.

The melomakarona I made this year (see photo) are based on pastry chef Stelios Parliaros’ recipe. The recipe makes about 50 melomakarona and the preparation and backing time is just an hour and a half.

Tips for melomakarona

Make the syrup first and let it cool.
Dip the melomakarona in the cold syrup while they are still very warm. Leave them for just a few seconds while the syrup is still hot. This way the outside will stay hard and the syrup will go inside.