Greek Christmas Filled Cookies

Cookies/Finikia/Melomakarona, a recipe from the East full of aromas and memories of lost homelands! Stuffed, traditional, Lenten and syrupy cookies.
The syruping is done in a saucepan and while the syrup is kept warm on a very low heat.
We prepare Finikia, which are consumed during the Lenten days before Christmas but also as a sweet delicacy for Christmas and New Year's Day along with the other Christmas desserts of the Twelve Days, such as Melomakarona, Kourabiedes, hills of fried honeyed Diples fragrant and fluffy Vasilopites! And even Isli, Christmas Bread, Kouloures, New Year's Loukoumades, Pancakes and other local sweets, festive, symbolic and ritual, that are prepared in every corner of Greece.
Yours!

Merry Christmas 2024! 🎄
Happy Holidays!

work: 1h:00′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Old-Fashioned Raisin Cake

This Old Fashioned Raisin Cake & Walnut is a trip down memory lane, an old fashioned cake filled with warm spices, juicy raisins and crunchy walnuts. Raisin cake is the ultimate cake for tea, coffee and for our snack as a snack.
With its vintage charm and moist crumb, this old-fashioned raisin cake is a traditional recipe.
Its moist texture is a dream, striking the perfect balance between fluffy and firm. To finish off the baked raisin cake, you can keep it plain or sprinkle some powdered sugar on top.
Yours!

work:00:15′

time: 1h:00′

very easy:

No Knead Walnut Raisin Bread

Bread without kneading: we know it, we have made it and we like it. But this particular is very tasty and has to do not only with the ingredients it contains but with the time in which it is being prepared. The time matures the leaven and the result is excellent.
We follow the program and dedicate a morning of Saturday & Sunday to complete it -with the second bread rise & baking- to enjoy it with a companion and combined in a brunch, with salty and sweet tastes on a plate of cheese, sausages, butter, jam and honey or whatever else we like. The Bread will, however, be the king of the brunch. Oh, eaten and plain, especially plain!
The organization of the long wait for the preparation of this bread is made on the basis of the following timetable and which we must follow. In the standby time we do not discount. Since you do not knead let the time do the work for us.
Yours!
⌚

• 18:00 make the dough
• 10:00 next day start the second rise
• 11:30 turn on the oven with the cast iron pot in
• 12:00 bake the bread
• 13:00 you have ready, hot, baked bread!

work: 20′

time: 18h:00′

easy:

Dates & Nuts Roll

An easy, simple and delicious sweet recipe for these rolls of dates and nuts, flavored with orange and cloves and sprinkled with grated pistachios. It is a healthy and tasty sweet, fat-free and sugar-free, but the dates give all the sweetness to these rolls, since they are already a sweet temptation.
Sweet rolls with dill and nuts have their origins in India where they are made and eaten a lot.
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 2h:30′

easy:

Melomakarona - Greek Christmas Honey Cookies

Melomakarona the Greek!
Melomakarona is a famous Greek delicacy to enjoy the Christmas season. They are made with flour, semolina, beer, olive oil and fresh butter from sheep and goat of unique flavor, stuffed with nut and dipped in syrup of honey, sugar and mandarin with extra grated nut with spices to sprinkle them on top.
Oriental spices, honey and citrus aromas to smell our homes during Christmas, this beautiful and hopeful celebration of Christianity!

Happy Christmas!
Happy Holidays!

work: 1h:00′

time: 2h:00′

easy:

Loukoumades: Fried Greek Honey Puffs

A traditional sweet, tasty, easy & simple, very popular in Greece but also elsewhere. A bloated and fried dough shaped into small balls, drizzled with honey or syrup and sprinkled with fragrant cinnamon.
These are the fluffy dumplings of the grandmother, a delicious confection solution that children and adults like…
Now that the day is cold and rainy, you can make them. They do not require many ingredients or complex preparations, they are made in half a shake and as quickly disappear!
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Melomakarona-Honey Cookies with Mavrodaphne

Melomakarona, the cousin of Kourambiethes, traditional Christmas sweets have their technique to get soaped in a delicious honey syrup properly, to be tasty and soft inside. The dough should be soft and fluffy to not become hard during baking and syrup to be viscous with a lot of honey and flavored with exquisite essential oils of orange but also the individual flavors of cinnamon and cloves.
The Mavrodaphne, this wonderful Greek product, gives tasty heady tones in melomakarona and as a final complement of all this comes the crushed walnuts to meet all of the above.
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 1h:15′

easy:

Turkish Delight & Walnuts Cookies

Biscuit Dough crumbles into a thousand crumbs, contrasting with the very tender inside of the Turkish Delights accompanying the crunchy walnut. They are always made in our house with Turkish Delight & Walnuts; we worshiped them as children or adults.
In some areas of Crete, these Skaltsounia are named Patoutha (Τα Πατούδα), with various fillings, and besides dusting with icing sugar, they are also made with syrup. A mouthful delight for the palate and a sweet lenten for every season.
The Lenten «Skaltsounia» are traditional in many parts of Greece with various fillings but also in the Balkan Countries. And also the neighbors Italians make something similar with nuts and dried fruit or jam or chocolate. «They are named «Ravioli Dolci».
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 1h:15′

easy:

Stuffed Apricot with Ricotta Cheese

Greek Summer for most natives or travelers means sea, vacation, walking, cool drink in hand and fresh fruit, lots of raw fruit, and in other forms, such as juices, ice cream, smoothies, granites, etc.
We now enjoy fresh apricots stuffed with ricotta cheese, bathed in honey, and sprinkled with crushed walnuts. So simple, with a few ingredients but so a special dessert. Without ovens and baking with straightforward procedures on our table a delicious, healthy, and impressive sweet.
Yours!

work: 15′

time: 15′

very easy:

Baklava

Traditional Baklava, with 40 thin phyllo pastry sheets, with the fragrant and tasty stuffing of roasted walnuts and almonds. Butter gives an excellent aroma and the phyllo pastry sheets creaks the crust in every bite. The syrup is completely absorbed by the baked Baklava and fine semolina swells and gives it volume.
For that baklava, I can write more, particularly praise…
Yours!

Merry Christmas!

work: 1h:00′

time: 8h:30′

difficult:

Melomakarona Honey Cookies with Dark Chocolate

Two delicious sweets are the stars of the Christmas holidays, the Kourabiethes and Melomakarona. For some it is melomakarona the most beloved Christmas Cookie for others Kourabiethes.
Melomakarona are sweet Cookies with bright aromas of cinnamon, ground cloves, essential oils of orange, and syrupy with genuine Greek honey sprinkled with crushed walnut does unequaled.
The current proposal has two more extra ingredients that differentiate them making them tastier and very very special. They are kneaded with walnuts and dark chocolate.
They have a versatile procedure, not at all difficult but quite time-consuming.
Yours!

work: 1h:00′

time: 2h:00′

medium:

Greek Walnut Spice Cake

This cake is usually festive, syrupy sweet, traditionally made in Greek kitchens during major holidays but also for family names.
The cake I suggest is slightly syrupy, with less walnut, 2 eggs, with Greek yogurt with olive oil and basic, without mixer. Mix the ingredients with a spoon and ready for the furnace. The flavor and its aroma are intensified by the addition of spices and orange zest.
Yours!

work: 15′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Grape Molasses Semolina Pudding-Moustalevria

It's traditional Greek autumn sweet, when the harvest of the vines are in full swing and the rural people engaged in groups, in the collection of grapes to make their wine and many other derivatives of the must. As sweet preparations for children and their families: molasses, jelly, must cookies, soutzouki etc.
Here the proposal of Kitchen Stories replaces the flour, which is traditionally used to prepare the jelly with semolina, lots of walnuts, cinnamon and roasted sesame. The result is a delicious sweet cream with acidic tones grape.
Against the times and circumstances we continue to sweeten our Sundays as best as we can.
Yours!

work: 10′

time: 20′

very easy:

Nocino Walnut Liqueur

Nocino is an Italian liqueur with very dark color and made from small green walnuts while still unripe.
There are many recipes for this liqueur, with several days of exposure to sun, etc. I preferred a short and simple process with the only difference that in this case you let it for 6-7 months to mature the flavor and bring out the aromas.
Adding lemon peel reduces the astringent taste of the liqueur. If you have easy access to walnut trees, try to make this lovely, traditional, homemade liqueur.
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 24h:00′

easy:

New Year's Cake 2015

This New Year's cake is a little different, with lots of delicious ingredients, which work in favor of the special taste.
Walnuts, almonds, chocolate and yogurt and citrus juice, which offer the fluffy texture and velvety fresh taste. The lemon glaze gives the sour tones that balance perfectly with the sweet aftertaste of the cake. It is made from the previous day, so as to unite the flavors and aromas of the ingredients.
Yours!
Happy New Year and Great 2015!

work: 30′

time: 2h:00′

medium:

Melomakarona with Carrot, Honey Cookies

Melomakarona with honey, easy to prepare, light, alternative, and veggie. Melomakarona different. Mediterranean natural ingredients, orange splashes and carrot flavor. Do not miss out, make a difference.
Shape small round melomakarona, scribe, baptise in honey syrup and sprinkle with plenty of grated walnuts.
The melomakarona keep you tasty companionship in waiting for holidays…
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 45′

easy:

Pineapple Upside-Down Mini-Cakes

A variant of the classic pineapple upside-down cake adapted to small, cute cupcakes.
Caramel mini cupcakes with pineapple flavor, for individual enjoyment. They are delicious, have absorbed the caramel inside and have perfect taste.
The coating with a golden pineapple washer, make them a beautiful sight. To the cake mixture add crushed pineapple and they have silky softness and the necessary humidity.
Enjoy them with a scoop of ice cream bathed with extra candy depending on the season.
Yours!

work: 45′

time: 1h:10′

medium:

Coconut Carrot Cake

Carrot cake without flour, and by extension Gluten Free for those who follow a gluten-free diet, have an intolerance to it, or do not wish to consume cereal.
Beyond this, the cake is very rich in ingredients and very tasty. The coconut flour substitute perfectly normal flour and is very tasty. The addition of cream cheese comes to further intensify the flavor.
Yours!

work: 25′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Peppers Stuffed with Cheese & Bacon

Dish colored with colorful peppers stuffed with a mixture of different, spicy cheese and bacon. Dish with dual option. That of an appetizer and this of main course.
The peppers are an easy and delicious vegetable, which lends itself to be used in many tasty choices in the events of our kitchen. The ease in filling them (with a variety of fillings) makes them attractive to our liking.
Try them!

The recipe

Peppers Stuffed with Cheese & Bacon

can be found in the book «Μεζέδες».

work: 30′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

New Year's Cake 2014

Happy 2014!

The custom of Pie is very old, has its roots in a feast that our ancestors in ancient Greece did of "Saturn", the Roman "Saturnalia".
Greek Tradition has various sweet or savory tastes. A key common feature is that all placed inside a coin, usually common, but in some cases gold Constantinato (florin coin) or silver.
The most prevalent, and perhaps the most beloved, is in the form of cake with various spices, nuts, with candied fruit etc. Often written on the pie is the number of the new year.
This year's New Year cake is a delicious cake, sprinkled with lots of icing sugar, almonds and walnuts, and very intense aroma of orange. It is inflatable and very fluffy, white and soft crumb.
Try it!

work: 30′

time: 1h:30′

easy: