Melomakarona

Directions

Sift our flour and add the baking powder.

In another bowl, we mix all the liquids, i.e., vegetable oil, olive oil, orange juice in which we have dissolved the baking soda. We add the sugar and stir well until the sugar dissolves (to make our dough more fluffy and not heavy). As soon as it dissolves, we gradually add our flour with the baking powder. At the beginning, we use a whisk and at the end, our hands. At this point, we should mention that the mixing should be done with light movements and as few as possible. Do not knead the dough for too long, just mix all the flour in about 4-5 movements. The more you work the dough, the tighter it will become.

Our dough should be soft like playdough and oily. We let it rest for about 20 minutes, covered with cling film. During this time, the flavors and aromas will incorporate.

We start making our melomakarona. We shape them and place them on parchment paper. When a sheet is finished, we take a fork and lightly poke the surface. This will help the syrup to be absorbed more easily. We put the sheet in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes, and the time will vary depending on the size of our melomakarona. Only one sheet at a time. We will know they are ready when they turn golden brown and come off easily from the parchment paper.

We let them cool well.

For the syrup:

We put all our ingredients in a pot and let it boil. When it boils, it will produce foam, so we lower the heat to simmer. We skim our syrup and start dipping our melomakarona. We dip a few at a time to have control over the syrup absorption. Depending on the size, we leave them in the syrup for about 15 seconds. At this point, I would like to say that I prefer my syrup warm and the melomakarona cold to melt correctly and not be too syrupy. If you like them very syrupy, you can do the opposite, i.e., cold syrup and dip them in as soon as they come out of the oven.

As soon as we remove them, we put them on a rack and sprinkle them with chopped walnuts and Aegina pistachios.

Let them cool well and place them on your platter!

Enjoy!