Trovados

I put that name in quotation marks because this is what my grandmother called the traditional Greek melomakaronas.  I have no idea how they got that name, but they have never been replaced in my heart as the most delicious cookies ever made.  I have tried to simplify the recipe, and in fact have been quite successful, but here it is in the original.

TROVADOS

For the cookies

2 cups oil

3/4 cup sugar

Zest of one orange

3/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup brandy

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

Pinch salt

7 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups coarsely-ground walnuts or pistachios

Cinnamon

 

For the syrup

1 cup honey

1 cup sugar

1-1/2 cups water

Cinnamon

3-4 whole cloves

The rind of 1/2 lemon (yellow skin only)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

 

Preparation

In a large bowl, use your hands to mix the sugar with the orange zest to release the orange flavor.  Beat the oil into the orange sugar with an electric mixer until well blended.  Add the oil-sugar mixture to the flour mixture, along with 1/4 cup of brandy and orange juice.  Mix well.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Now add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients cup by cup, mixing until it becomes dense and wet, but not sticky.  To make the cookies, pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a walnut and shape in an oblong and lay on an ungreased baking sheet.  Continue until all the dough is finished.  If you wish, lightly depress the center of each cookie with a fork.  Then place the baking sheet in a preheated 350-degree oven for 25-30 minutes.To make the syrup, while the cookies are baking, bring the ingredients for the syrup (except the lemon juice) to a boil in a pot, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove the cloves and lemon rind, and stir in the lemon juice.When the cookies come out of the oven, carefully place them one at a time in the warm syrup and allow them to absorb it for a few seconds on both sides.  Lift them out of the hot syrup with a spatula or spider, and place them on a platter.  Sprinkle with the chopped nuts and set aside to cool.  These cookies should not be refrigerated as that will harden them.

Variation on a Theme:  I made a slighly different cookie once, which was just as delectable.  For the cookie, I made a simple butter cookie, which I then dunked in a syrup made simply from honey, water and lemon juice.  I left the cookies in the jar with the honey syrup, to be taken out and savored as I remember doing in my grandmother's kitchen, fingers dripping with the sweetness, the fragrance of the lemon honey filling the nostrils and lifting me to ecstasy.