Melomakarona — honey cookies with orange and walnuts

Put 150 g sugar in a small saucepan and add all 200 g water. Heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Once gently boiling, simmer on low about 3–4 minutes, without substantial evaporation. Remove from the heat, add all 100 g honey and stir. Do not boil again and do not add peel or other ingredients that would need removing later.

Pour all the syrup into a heatproof bowl about 14–16 cm across. Leave about 60–90 minutes until completely cool; it can be prepared ahead. The syrup must be cool before the first cookie batch leaves the oven. Do not reheat it. Set a rack over a tray nearby, with a slotted spoon and two large baking sheets lined with parchment.

Put 300 g cake flour, 60 g dry fine semolina, 4 g baking powder, 2 g cinnamon and 1 g salt in a large bowl. Whisk thoroughly to break up lumps. Separately weigh 1 g baking soda; it will shortly be mixed with the juice. Do not add dusting flour or extra spices. All the weighed dry mixture will be used in the cookies.

In another bowl mix 100 g sunflower oil, 50 g olive oil, 50 g sugar and all 4 g finely grated colored orange zest. In a cup combine 120 g strained juice with 1 g baking soda, leaving room for foaming. Immediately pour it all into the oils and mix briefly. Do not add white pith, extra juice, alcohol or honey to the dough.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir with a spatula only until dry flour disappears. Scrape the bowl sides and bring together with a few hand movements, without kneading like bread. Rest about 10 minutes so the semolina absorbs some liquid. The dough should be soft and pliable, not compressed or worked at length. Do not add flour and do not grease your hands with extra oil.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional heat, with the rack in the middle. Divide all the dough into twenty-four roughly equal pieces, about 29 g each. Scrape all mixture from the bowl as well. Each baking sheet measuring about 30 × 40 cm will hold twelve cookies. Do not reserve a test portion, do not cut out rounds and do not discard any scraps.

Gently shape each piece into an oval about 5–6 cm long, 3–4 cm wide and about 1.5 cm thick. Put twelve on each sheet of parchment, leaving at least 2 cm between them. Lightly press the top with fork tines to make a shallow pattern, without flattening into thin cakes. Do not grease the paper and do not coat the dough with extra sugar.

Bake the first sheet about 22–28 minutes until the cookies are evenly golden, including underneath, and set on the surface. Do not remove while pale or soft like raw dough. Keep the second sheet at room temperature. Once the first comes out, immediately put in the second and bake similarly; total baking time for both batches is about 45–55 minutes. Dip the hot first batch immediately.

Check that the syrup is completely cool. Add two or three hot cookies at a time and gently turn with a spoon, immersing each side for about 10 seconds, about 20 seconds in total. Lift with a slotted spoon, pause a few seconds above the bowl and put on the rack. As the liquid level falls, tilt the bowl slightly and turn the cookies in it. Beware of the hot baking sheet and the soft freshly soaked cookies.

Sprinkle the still-moist cookies with all 60 g chopped walnuts, sharing evenly among twenty-four cookies. Press gently so they stick to the tops. Add nuts that fall onto clean paper to the portions. Dip and top the second hot batch in the same way. Collect leftover syrup and liquid from the tray separately; do not pour them over the finished cookies and do not include them in the served dessert.

Leave the melomakarona on the rack about 60–90 minutes until completely cool, the surface dries and moisture distributes through the interior. Do not close warm cookies in a box, as condensed steam will soften them further. Use a wide spatula to transfer to a dry platter or container. Do not add more honey, syrup, powdered sugar or other decorations.

Divide the whole batch into twelve portions of two cookies, sharing edible walnut crumbs as well. Serve at room temperature without a separate bowl of leftover syrup. Store cookies in an airtight container in a cool place indoors for up to 5 days, separating layers with paper. Keep unused dipping syrup separately in the refrigerator for another use; it is not part of these portions.