Ingredients for the Christmas honey cookies
- 650 g soft flour
- 380 g fine semolina
- 125 g icing sugar
- 50 g honey
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon clove powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baker’s ammonia
- 250 ml seed oil
- 175 ml fresh orange juice
- 100 ml water
- zest of 2 oranges
Ingredients for the syrup
- 500 ml water
- 1 kg granulated sugar
- 250 g glucose
- 50 g honey
- 1 cinnamon stick
Method for the syrup
Place all the ingredients needed for the syrup, apart from the honey, into a saucepan over high heat, and stir until it comes to a boil. (the cinnamon stick should be cracked).
Remove the saucepan from heat, add the honey, and stir until combined. When ready, set aside and let it cool.
Method for the cookies
Add all the solid ingredients to a bowl along with the zest and stir properly with a hand whisk.
Then, heat the water in a coffee pot until it almost comes to a boil, and then remove it from heat.
Right after, add in a separate large bowl all the liquid ingredients along with the honey and stir with a hand whisk.
After whisking the liquid mixture, add in 4-5 batches the powdery mixture to the bowl with the liquid ingredients and mix by hand crosswise, until it forms into a soft dough.
Transfer the cookie dough onto your working surface, and with quick moves mold the cookie dough into the shape and size of your preference. Try to keep the cookies as similar as possible to bake evenly.
Optionally, press the surface of the cookies with a sieve to make a pattern.
Line a baking pan with parchment paper, and then place the cookies on it. Bake in a preheated oven on the middle oven rack on heating elements, at 190-200 C for about 30-40 minutes, depending on size and how crunchy you prefer the cookies.
To assemble
Right after removing the cookies from the oven, take the saucepan with the cold syrup and remove the cinnamon sticks. Next, place into as many cookies as the saucepan can contain so that the syrup covers them.
Leave the cookies in the syrup, depending on how syrupy you prefer them to be: 1 minute for lightly syrupy, 1.5-2 minutes for moderately syrupy, and over 2 minutes for very syrupy.
Remove the cookies from the syrup and allow them to drain on a wire rack with a sheet of parchment paper or a baking pan underneath so that they drain well. Finally, drizzle as much honey as preferred over the cookies and garnish with chopped walnuts.
