Walnut-filled Melomakarona (Ischli)

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 650 g flour, depending on the type of flour up to 50 g more, approx. 8 cups
• 150 ml olive oil
• 150 ml corn germ oil
• ½ cup vegetable fat (one cup has a volume of 200 ml)
• ¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• ¼ cup Metaxa
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 pinches of dry yeast
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 ½ tsp, heaped baking powder
• 1 tsp, heaped baking soda, dissolved in orange juice
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp clove powder
• 3 cups of water
• 3 cups of sugar
• 2 cups honey, thyme honey or forest honey, not blossom honey
• 200 g walnuts, 25 halved, the rest grated
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 5 cloves
• 1 tbsp, heaped sesame seeds
• 1 lemon slice(s)

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes

Greek Christmas cookies, without milk, without eggs, for 50 cookies.

Stir the oil, fat, sugar, and Metaxa vigorously with a wooden spoon until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the baking soda to the orange juice and stir it into the oil mixture over the zest. Stir carefully, as it will foam a lot. Then immediately add it to the oil in the zest. Sift the flour, cinnamon, clove powder, yeast, baking powder, and salt over the dough. Do not knead the dough; just fold it together, slowly and loosely, until no more flour is visible. Form 50 balls from the dough, make a hole in the center of each ball, and place half a walnut inside. Cover the hole with dough. Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. The next step, dipping them in syrup, can be done either on the same day or on a different day. It is important that the melomakarona are cold and the syrup is gently simmering. To make the syrup, boil the water with the sugar, honey, cinnamon stick, cloves, and lemon slice for about 5 minutes. Skim off the skims while boiling. Then reduce the heat to the lowest setting and dip the melomakarona, 5-6 at a time, into the pan and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Carefully remove them. At this point, they will still be a bit fragile, but after a few minutes, this will stop. In the meantime, prepare a mixture of toasted sesame seeds, the grated walnuts, and about 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle this over the melomakarona IMMEDIATELY after removing them from the pot. Continue in batches until all the melomakarona have been “bathed.” The syrup may thicken shortly before the end; thin it out with a little hot water. This Christmas pastry may take a bit of time, but it keeps forever and is worth the effort.