This cookie is made using flour, baking powder, orange juice, and oil. After baking in the oven, the Finikia are rolled in a mixture of cinnamon, sugar and ground walnuts. Melomakarona, another type of Greek cookie dessert, is made with the same ingredients, but after baking, is dipped into a syrup mixture consisting of sugar, honey, water, orange zest, and cloves. Then it is rolled in the ground walnut, sugar and cinnamon mixture.
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar (I used cane sugar)
• Grated zest of one orange
• 1 cup oil
• 2 eggs yolk
• 5 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of Almond flour or you can use 1 cups semolina or just all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup orange juice from 1 large naval orange, and rind from it.
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 oz brandy (optional)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup honey
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 4-5 cloves
• 2-3 pieces of Orange and Lemon rind
- 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of cloves
- Peel the orange skin in rind.
- Squeeze fresh juice from Orange and chop the remaining orange with skin in small pieces.
- Dilute the baking soda in orange juice.
- In a food processor cream butter and oil well.
- Add sugar and continue creaming.
- Add salt.
- Add egg yolks, continue creaming.
- Add orange juice with baking soda, continue mixing in food processor
- Add orange piece and rind and continue creaming in food processor with chopping blade.
- Add baking powder and mix well until every thing is well blended and there are no more big chunks of orange pieces.
- Add vanilla, mix well, add cinnamon and clove powder and mix well.
- Mix the creamed content with both flours.
- Kneed until the dough is pliable and does not stick to hands.
- It is will be little greasy.
- Do not over work the dough, but kneed until smooth and everything is well incorporated.
- Set aside.
- Prepare the filling and syrup.
- Place walnuts in food processor.
- Add cinnamon, clove powder and sugar.
- Chop walnut with sugar, clove powder and cinnamon in to coarse powder and set aside.
- Combine all ingredients.
- Bring it to boil on stove at medium heat.
- Boil for 10 min.
- Turn the stove off.
- Roll the filled cookies in following manner.
- Take one tblspoon of dough and place 1/2 teaspoon of filling in the middle then place another tablespoon of dough on top, pinch it close and roll the cookie in an oval shape roll.
- Place them on cookie sheet 1" apart and make and indentation with back of the fork.
- Bake the cookies at 350 F for 20-25 min or until golden brown.
- In the mean time prepare your dipping station with space for baked cookies, syrup, parchment paper lined platter and walnut topping.
- Once the batch is done take the cookies out of oven.
- Set aside for few min.
- Separate them.
- Strain the syrup to take out all the rind, cinnamon stick and cloves.
- Dip the warm cookie in the syrup with a slotted spoon. Soak for few seconds, then flip the cookie over and soak for few more seconds.
- Place them on parchment paper line platter.
- Sprinkle the topping on each cookie.
- Once cool you can transfer them in to serving paper cups.
- For best result wait for few hours or one day before serving.
- These will keep for up to 5 wks if they last that long.
- Keep finished cookies in a sealed container at room temperature.
- I store mine in the fridge.
- You can also bake the cookies and freeze them without dipping them in syrup
- When you want to serve them you can make fresh syrup and dip the thawed cookies in the warm syrup.
- The result would be same.
Here is the recipe with using egg yolks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe adapted by Surekha from a recipe given to her by a friend "Maria"
Photographs by Surekha.