Let’s start with the basics. Kourabiedes are a type of almond butter cookie covered in powdered sugar while melomakarona are syrupy cookies made with flour, olive oil and honey and topped with crushed walnuts; each have their ardent supporters. For Greeks the appearance of kourabiedes and melomakarona in the local bakery or in their grandmother’s kitchen are a sign that Christmas is fast approaching.

But let’s talk about melomakarona. First of all there are several competing schools of thought as to how they should be prepared with, for instance, different recipes based either on flour or semolina. Then, melomakarona aficionados can be broadly split into two camps: those who prefer their melomakarona to be steeped in honey with a soft, sticky center, and those who prefer them to be crispier and crunchier. The cookies can also be either long and oval-shaped or small and round, designed to be eaten in a single bite. Some fill their melomakarona with walnuts, while more commonly crushed walnuts are merely sprinkled on top.

More modern variations include dipping the cookies in melted chocolate. But a necessary condition for all recipes, new and old, is the use of plentiful honey. Indeed infusing the cookies with honey is considered the trickiest part of making melomakarona – the desired effect is for the cookies to uniformly absorb the syrupy mixture which is normally given added fragrance through the use of orange peel and a stick of cinnamon.