Cookie Extravaganza! Greek Honey-Walnut Balls

For our next trick, we have Greek Honey Walnut Balls. I am not really sure if these are technically a cookie, but close enough. As loyal readers know, we really love Greek food. So if we are making a cookie extravaganza, naturally one of them has to be Greek. This recipe is based off of one we found at Christmas-Cookies.com, but we made a slight adaptation. We had a cinnamon stick, actually one from Greece, that we were excited to use in the syrup, but we couldn't break it in half!

And we didn't have whole cloves either, so we just used ground. Since these are really yummy, we can't even imagine the yumminess that they would have been if we had used whole seasonings. Here it is:

ingredients

1/3 c honey

3/4 c sugar, divided

1/2 c orange juice, divided

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided

3/4 tsp cloves, divided

1 1/2 c ground walnuts, divided

1/2 tsp orange peel

1 c unsalted butter, room temperature

3 flour

2 Tbsp brandy

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Cal's note: thats quite a list of ingredients isn't it!

instructions

1. preheat oven to 350

2. combine honey, 1/4 c sugar, 1/4 cup orange juice, 1 tsp cinnmon, and 1/2 tsp cloves in a small saucepan. bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes. remove from heat and separate 1/4 c

3. in a bowl, combine 1 c ground walnuts and orange peel.

4. Add 1/4 c syrup to the walnut mixture. set aside

5. in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter until smooth

6. add 1 1/2 c of the flour

7. add remaining 1/2 c sugar, 1/4 c OJ, brandy, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. beat until well blended

we like to pose with alcohol

8. add remaining 1 1/2 c flour.

9. roll dough into 1" balls and place on nonstick or greased cookie sheet.

10. use your hoof (or finger) to press hole in the center of the ball. fill the ball with walnut/orange/syrup mixture (about 1/2 tsp in each). close ball by bringing up dough around the filling. flip over so the seam is on the bottom. score with a knife on the top (make an X but dont cut into the center)

11. bake 18-20 min, until firm

12. near the end of the baking time, reheat remaining syrup. when the balls come out of the oven, brush them with the syrup

16. sprinkle the tops with remaining ground walnuts.

17. let cool completely on wire rack.

Yea they are pretty delicious. We had probably a 1/3 of a cup of the walnut/orange/syrup mixture left, so we wish we had filled the balls a little more. Don't let that stuff go to waste!

Moo!