Subject: RECIPE: Melomacarona (Greek Christmas cookies)
From: [email-masked] (Kriton Kyrimis)
Date: 14 Dec 87 19:59:50 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.gourmand

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.RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE MELOMACARONA D "13 Dec 87" 1987
.RZ "MELOMACARONA" "Traditional greek Christmas cookies soaked in honey syrup"
This is one of the two kinds of confection that are traditionally
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.
.IH "makes about 40 pieces"
.IG "1\(12 cups" "olive oil" "400 ml"
.IG "\(12 cup" "unsalted butter" "120 g"
(at room temperature)
.IG "1 cup" "beer" "250 ml"
.IG "\(34 tsp" "ground cinnamon" "4 ml"
.IG "\(14 tsp" "ground cloves" "1 ml"
.IG "" "orange peel"
(use the grated peel of one orange)
.IG "1 cup" "sugar" "200 g"
.IG "2 cups" "finely ground semolina" "350 g"
.IG "6 cups" "flour" "600 g"
.IG "\(12 tsp" "baking soda" "2.5 ml"
.IG "\(12 tsp" "baking powder" "2.5 ml"
.IG "1 tsp" "salt" "5 ml"
.IG "1\(12 cup" "sugar" "300 g"
(for the syrup)
.IG "1\(12 cup" "honey" "500 g"
.IG "1 cup" "water" "250 ml"
.IG "\(12 cup" "chopped walnuts" "60 g"
.PH
.SK 1
Put the olive oil, butter, beer, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and sugar in a
mixing bowl and beat until they are thoroughly blended.
.SK 2
Sift about one cup of flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt,
and blend into the mixture.
.SK 3
Add the semolina, a cup at a time, into the mixture.
.SK 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.
.SK 5
Roll the dough into cylinders, about
.AB "two inches" "5 cm"
long
and
.AB "one inch" "2\-3 cm"
in diameter, flatten them with your hands, and place them on cookie sheets
greased with a little olive oil. Bake at
.TE 350 175
for half an hour.
.SK 6
Remove the cookies from the oven, and let them cool for about half an
hour.
.SK 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.
.SK 8
Pour the hot syrup over the cookies, sprinkle them with the chopped walnuts
and let them soak overnight.
.NX
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.
.PP
The amounts given here are for only half a recipe. Considering that it is very
hard to eat only one melomacarono, making the full recipe may not be as
outrageous as it sounds!
.SH RATING
.I Difficulty:
Easy to moderate.
.I Time:
30 minutes preparation, 30 minutes baking, 30 minutes cooling, overnight
soaking.
.I Precision:
approximate measurement OK.
.WR
Kriton Kyrimis
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
princeton!kyrimis	[email-masked]