Melomakarona – Greek Honey Christmas Cookies
, Updated Aug 01, 2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Traditional Greek honey spice cookies, or melomakarona, are soft, warmly spiced, and soaked in a fragrant honey syrup. A festive treat perfect for Christmas and beyond, easy to make and impossible to resist. Why not try a my melomakarona recipe for your cookie exchange this year?
If you’ve never tried melomakarona before, prepare to fall in love. These Greek festive cookies are the stuff of holiday dreams—soft and crumbly, soaked in warm honey syrup, and scented with orange, cinnamon, and cloves. Traditionally made around Christmas, they’re perfect for gifting, sharing… or sneaking straight from the tin with your coffee.
In Greece, Melomakarona are completely inescapable during the festive season. Most households have a their own melomakarona recipe passed down the generations. Every year large batches of these cookies get baked, exchanged, gifted and nibbled round the clock for a few weeks come December.
What’s Melomakarona
Melomakarona (μελομακάρονα) are a beloved Greek Christmas cookie with roots going back to antiquity. The name roughly translates as “honey-blessed” or “blessed with syrup” and these cookies are traditionally baked during the festive season in Greek homes, alongside kourabiedes (almond shortbread cookies covered with powdered sugar).
Made with olive oil, orange juice and warming spices, they’re dipped in a honey syrup right after baking, then topped with chopped walnuts. Sticky, sweet, and deeply fragrant, they’re a must on any festive cookie platter in Greece, and now, hopefully, yours too!
They keep very well for a couple of weeks, their flavor actually improving over time. I think they must be one of the very first recipes I helped my yiayia make – I have distinct memories of rolling the dough in my hands and pressing it against a box grater to create a little pattern on the top.
Here’s What You Will Need
Here’s what you will need to make this festive Greek recipe. The cookie dough can be made in a stand mixer or using a hand mixer.
- Sugar, honey, water, orange peel and cinnamon stick for the syrup
- Light olive oil gives the cookies their tender, rich crumb
- Softened butter or margarine
- Orange zest and juice add citrus brightness that cuts through the sweetness
- Brandy or rum
- Ground cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
- All-purpose flour plus baking powder and baking soda
- Chopped walnuts to top the cookies
How to Make Melomakarona
MAKE THE SYRUP
- Put all the honey syrup ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring, for 5-10 minutes until slightly thickened. Discard any foam that forms on top of the syrup, the cinnamon stick and orange peel. Let the syrup cool while you make the cookies.
Prepare the melomakarona
- Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Line two large baking trays with silicone mats or baking paper.
- Put the oil, butter, sugar and all the spices in the bowl of your stand mixer and beat together with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes.
- Mix the orange juice, alcohol, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda – the mixture will fizz and froth. Add it to the mixing bowl together with the salt and orange zest and beat together on medium. Gradually add the flour until a pliable dough forms. You might need to add a little more if the dough is too soft.
- Roll the cookies into small balls (size of a walnut). Press to an oval shape, roll and press against a cheese grater to add a bit of texture. Place on the trays, slightly spaced apart. Bake for 25-30 minutes until evenly colored and firm.
Soak the cookies
- Remove from the oven and drop them, a few at a time, into the cool syrup for 1-2 minutes, flipping them over to soak evenly. Continue until all the cookies are soaked in the syrup.
- Layer the cookies on a platter, spoon any remaining syrup over them and sprinkle with the chopped nuts and cinnamon (if using).
Recipe Notes and Tips
- If you like, you can stuff your honey cookies with dates and walnuts although I much prefer the plain version.
- Replace the brandy with more orange juice if you prefer melomakarona with no alcohol.
- Vegan melomakarona: replace the butter with a vegan baking spread and use agave syrup or golden syrup instead of honey in the syrup.
- Leftovers & Storage: Store in an airtight container at cool room temperature for up to 2 weeks—they just get more flavorful with time.
HAVE YOU MADE MY MELOMAKARONA RECIPE? Please leave a comment and rating below, post a photo on my Facebook page, share it on Instagram, or save it to Pinterest with the tag #supergoldenbakes and make my day!
Melomakarona – Greek Christmas Honey Cookies
Video
Ingredients
For the Syrup
- 1 cup (250ml) water
- 1 cup (225g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (300g) mild-tasting honey or agave syrup
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 piece orange peel
For the Melomakarona
- ½ cup (120ml) light olive oil
- ½ cup (115g) unsalted butter or vegan baking spread
- ½ cup (115g) sugar granulated or superfilne (caster)
- ¼ cup (60ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
- ¼ cup (60ml) cognac, rum or brandy sub with more orange juice
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- Pinch ground nutmeg
- Zest of 1 orange
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 cups + 2 tbsp (500g) flour all-purpose / plain flour
For the Topping
- 1 cup (150g) finely chopped walnuts
- 1 cup (125g) finely chopped pistachios
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1 tbsp dried rose petals (optional – for a pretty finish)
Instructions
Make the syrup
- Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan, stir together then bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring, for 5-10 minutes until slightly thickened. Discard any foam that forms on top of the syrup.1 cup (250ml) water, 1 cup (225g) granulated sugar, 1 cup (300g) mild-tasting honey, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 piece orange peel
- Remove the cinnamon stick and orange peel. Keep the syrup warm until the cookies are ready.
Prepare the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Line two large baking trays with silicone mats or baking parchment.
- Put the oil, butter and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer and beat together with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes. Alternatively you can use an electric hand mixer.½ cup (120ml) light olive oil, ½ cup (115g) unsalted butter , ½ cup (115g) sugar
- Mix the orange juice, brandy, spices, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda – the mixture will fizz and froth.¼ cup (60ml) freshly squeezed orange juice, ¼ cup (60ml) cognac, rum or brandy, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp ground cloves, Pinch ground nutmeg
- Add it to the mixing bowl together with the salt and orange zest and beat together on medium. Gradually add the flour until the dough forms a ball – you can also fold it in by hand. Once the cookies hold their shape you can stop adding flour. Only use as much as you need.Zest of 1 orange, ½ tsp salt, 4 cups + 2 tbsp (500g) flour
- Roll the cookies into small balls (size of a walnut). Press to an oval shape, roll and press against a cheese grater to add a bit of texture. Place on the trays, slightly spaced apart. Bake for 25-30 minutes until evenly colored and firm.
Soak in the syrup
- Remove from the oven and drop them, a few at a time, into the simmering syrup for 1-2 minutes, flipping them over to soak evenly. Continue until all the cookies are used up.
- Layer the cookies on a platter, spoon any remaining syrup over them and sprinkle with the chopped nuts and cinnamon (if using). Keep at room temperature, loosely covered with foil.1 cup (150g) finely chopped walnuts, 1 cup (125g) finely chopped pistachios, 1 tbsp ground cinnamon, 1 tbsp dried rose petals
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate, and will depend on quality of ingredients and serving sizes.
Good but a little drier than I expected! Even after being soaked in syrup.
I Love this recipe! I can’t wait to try it.
What can I replace the alcohol (Brandy, Rum, etc.) with for my non-alcohol friends?
Hi Dennis, perhaps use additional orange juice. Hope you enjoy this recipe!
Did you really bake these 25-30 minutes? I imagine they would have been burnt to a crisp. I baked for 8 minutes and they were perfect. Only kept them in the syrup soak about 30 seconds. We liked them.
Yes I did but glad you enjoyed them
i searched high and low for a recipe to make these and usually the recipes call for a giant batch and can be hard to scale down.
even here i cut the recipe in half as it was my first time making melomakaronas, i just wanted to try these.
the cookies came out really really delicious, i am very happy. now i can make a full size batch for xmas and i cannot wait.
wonderful recipe, thank you so much.
I am so glad you liked them!
Just made my 3rd batch of your melomakorana! They are so beautiful & delicious! All my greek aunties want the recipe!
That makes me super happy 🙂
Made these to give away to friends & relatives for Xmas – everyone loves them!!!! They are a great size, not too big, look beautiful and were delicious. All my greek aunties love them. Will make more soon to give away.
I just finished making these for a Christmas party – my goodness they are so divine! Now I have to keep myself from eating the plateful before the party!!
I made my first batch of the Melomakarona just yesterday, and they turned out beautifully. I had lots and lots of chopped walnuts left, in fact I only needed half the amount, but what with all the Christmas baking still to do I was pretty sure I could use them for some other recipe. Well. Looks like they'll be used for a second batch of Melomakarona – they are OH. SO. GOOD. And almost gone. I swear there were nearly 50 golden syrupy little cookies sitting on the cooling rack, and now there's barely a dozen left. The husband (who's the Greek between the two of us) couldn't stop eating and said they were even better than he remembered. He took a container full of cookies to work this morning and reported back they were gone a mere 30 minutes after arriving.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful family recipe!
Have a lovely Christmas time!
I am SO HAPPY you made them and even happier you stopped by to comment : ) I can't fathom Christmas without melomakarona even though I have lived in the UK longer than I have in Greece. Have a lovely Christmas xxx
I can't believe how GORGEOUS these cookies are! Wow! …I'm writing that on everyone of your posts right now!! 😉 These look FANTASTIC!
I love discovering typical Christmas recipes from other countries, they all have nice stories behind them…specially like these Melamakarona.
Now I know where your exotic beauty comes from! 😉
xoxo