Greek Honey Cookies - Melomakarona

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• grated rind and juice of 1 large orange
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 tbsp superfine sugar
• 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1.75 tsp baking powder + 3.5 cups flour (combine these)
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup shelled walnuts, chopped

for the syrup

• 1 cup honey
• .5 cup superfine sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Mix baking soda and orange juice (not the rind).
Mix the olive oil and sugar together until well-blended. Beat in the cinnamon, then add the orange juice mixture.
Mix the salt and flour into the mixture and add the orange rind. Knead for 10 minutes.
Pinch off small pieces of the dough and shape them into 2.5 inch-long ovals and place on ungreased baking sheets.
Using a fork dipped in water, flatten each oval a little bit.
Bake for 25 minutes. Cool slightly and then let harden.
To make syrup, place honey, sugar, and 2/3 cup water in a small pan.
Gently bring it to a boil, stirring continuously. Try to skim off any surface foam, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Immerse the cold cookies, about six at a time, in the hot syrup and leave them to cook for 1-2 minutes. If the syrup doesn't completely cover the cookies, turn them every so often to coat both sides.
Lift them out with a slotted spoon and place on a platter in a single layer.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and chopped walnuts.

Thoughts: This is a pretty complex recipe and it is also very dangerous. When boiling the syrup, BE VERY CAREFUL. As it nears the boiling point, the mixture will start to rise rapidly. When this happens, REMOVE THE POT FROM THE HEAT AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN. Otherwise you risk getting honey and sugar ALL OVER your kitchen. CHRIST. I don't even think you need to boil the mixture. Just get it hot enough to dissolve the majority of the sugar. Dan would recommend mixing the cinnamon and chopped walnuts into the dough rather than topping the cookies. I personally disagree. He would also use butter instead of olive oil and would use one more egg because he wants them to be more like regular cookies. I also disagree there. He would also use the kitchen aid. I've got nothing against the kitchen aid.

Disaster index: 1/10 - delicious