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Guest recipes with LIDL Food Academy

guest1

A sweet taste of Christmas

Mandarin Melomakarona with Pecans

Liquid Ingredients

100g sunflower oil

100g mandarin juice

45g olive oil

2 tsp mandarin zest

Solid ingredients

250g all-purpose flour

50g fine semolina

15g sifted icing sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

For syrup

150g white granulated sugar

150g water

1 slice of mandarin

1 cinnamon stick

1-2 cloves

50g honey

To finish

Pecan nuts finely chopped

Honey

 

For the syrup

Put the sugar, water, mandarin, cinnamon stick and cloves in a suacepan. Over high heat, let boil for 3 minutes.

Off the fire pour the honey, mix and let the syrup cool in a bowl. Let it cool.

For melomakarona

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Pour all the liquid ingredients into a large bowl.

In another mix the solid ingredients with a fork.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix gently until all are combined.

Shape the melomakarona into oval shapes of 28g and squash one of their surfaces on a grater, fork or sieve.

Place on parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until they get a nice color.

As soon as the melomakarona come out of the oven hot, place them into the cold syrup for about 15 seconds. Take take them out and leave them in a sieve to drain.

Once drained, place on a layered platter and sprinkle with honey and nuts.

 

guest2Christmas Biscuit Decorations

 For the biscuit

250g unsalted butter, soft

250g brown sugar

75g white sugar

1 egg

2tbsp milk

500g all-purpose flour, sifted

2 tsp cocoa, sifted

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp orange zest

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1 pinch of salt

For the icing

200g icing sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon

 

Sift the flour and cocoa in a bowl. Add the cinnamon, orange zest and salt.

Beat the soft butter with the brown and white sugar. After it is well beaten, add the milk and the egg and beat again until fluffy.

Then add little by little, the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, orange zest and salt.

After the dough is combined, wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 1/2 hour.

Preheat oven to 170C.

On a workbench place the dough on a piece of parchment paper and cover it with another piece of parchment paper. This will let you roll out the dough with the rolling pin without sticking. Roll out into a thin sheet 3 millimeters thick.

Cut the cookies with the Christmas cookie cutters.

Place the biscuits on the oven sheet on parchment paper and with a straw make a small hole at the top of each one.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Let cool, thread a ribbon through the hole and glaze.

Place the sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and mix until it becomes a viscous, sticky glaze.

Pour some of the icing onto the biscuits.

Wait for them to dry and hang them on the tree.

 

Recipe provided by the Lidl food academy. Stasikratous 34, Nicosia 1010. [email protected]

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