We don’t need to substitute and invent intricate vegan cookies, as the most common ones we make at home, or buy at the bakeries all over the country, are usually baked with olive oil instead of butter.

Makes about 65 pieces

1 ½ cups light olive oil

1 cup sugar

650 grams cake flour or more, as needed

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of Salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup brandy

3 packed tablespoons orange zest (from 3-4 large oranges, zested with the microplane)

1 cup fresh orange juice

Toasted sesame seeds, or rosemary leaves (optional)

In the bowl of a standing mixer, fitted with the balloon attachment, beat the oil and sugar for about 5 minutes, until milky-white.

In a separate bowl toss the flour with the baking powder and salt and set aside.

In a cup add the baking soda to the brandy and stir to mix. Add the orange zest, orange juice and brandy-soda to the oil-sugar in the mixer, and stir a few times to mix.

Add gradually the flour to the liquids, in 2-3 additions, until just incorporated. You will end up with a very oily soft dough. If too soft, add a bit more flour, and transfer to the working surface. Let sit for 15-20 minutes before shaping.

Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the convection oven to 160 C (320F).

Shape walnut-size pieces of dough into a rope, then join the ends to create a koulouri (crown) pressing it lightly on the sesame, if using.

Alternatively you can shape small sticks, or press pieces of dough to a ¼-inch square and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter.

Sprinkle with sesame or rosemary if you like.

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Thinly slicing the raw fruit helps make the marmalade faster, and even more wonderfully fragrant. I start with this new version and then you will find the more traditional way. In both recipes I opt for less sugar as I love the tartness of citrus marmalade. If you prefer it sweeter you can increase the amount of sugar. 

You can make the same marmalade using Mayo lemons, varying the amount of sugar you add, and also maybe cooking less time the lemon slices, as they are definitely more tender that the Seville oranges. 

I often add some julienned tangerine, orange, and/or kumquat peels together with the sliced lemon or Seville orange to make a mixed citrus marmalade.

Makes about a dozen  8-ounce jars

4 pounds small Seville oranges (about 25), washed 

2 cups water

3-4 pounds sugar, or more to taste

Lay a wet, double cheesecloth in a bowl.

Using a very sharp, or a good serrated knife cut off and discard the ends of the fruit, then halve each Seville orange and remove the core, making sure you carefully take out all the pips.

Drop the pips and core into the cheesecloth.

Carefully slice each fruit VERY thinly, and drop the slices in a large, heavy-bottomed stainless steel pot. This is the most important part of the job, and it will take some time…I spent about 1h 15 minutes slicing my small Seville oranges.

Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium, and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the peels are very soft. Add 3 pounds sugar and the cheesecloth with the pips etc. to the pot and cook stirring every now and then until the sugar dissolves. Cook for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat, cover and let the marmalade cook overnight.   

The next morning the marmalade will look jelly. Bring slowly to a boil and cook for 10 minutes, pressing and turning the cheesecloth to get the pectin out. Taste and add more sugar, one cup at the time, stirring to dissolve it, and tasting to see if you need more.

When it begins to look syrupy, place a teaspoonful on a cold plate. Let cool, and push with your finger. If it wrinkles, the marmalade is done. (see the photos below).

Pour into hot, sterilized jars, cover and let cool and seal as described below, in the traditional English recipe.

The traditional ENGLISH-inspired Marmalade

Makes about SEVEN 8-ounce jars

10-12 organic Lemons OR 4-5 lemons and 5-6 Seville Oranges

1 1/2 – 2 kg (3-4 pounds) sugar (to taste)

1.5 liters (quarts) water

Simmer whole fruits in water until soft. Place a plate over the fruits to keep them immersed, and pierce them after about 15 minutes, to encourage cooking.

Transfer the fruit to a colander over a bowl, and leave to cool a bit.

Dissolve the sugar in the cooking water.

Halve the soft fruit, scrape out the seeds and pulp and place in cheesecloth or jelly bag. Tie with cotton string and hang over the side of the pan.

Slice or chop the lemon (and Seville orange) peel thinly. Stir the peel into the liquid.

Bring to simmer, stirring to ensure that the sugar is dissolved, then boil hard, stirring occasionally, until setting point is reached. It may take from 5 -20 minutes, more likely around 15.

When it begins to look syrupy, place a teaspoonful on a cold plate. Let cool, and push with your finger. If it wrinkles, the marmalade is done. Pour into hot, sterilized jars, cover and cool.

Although the marmalade looks runny as you fill the jars, it solidifies when cold.

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They are supposed to bring luck and help start the year with sweetness and strength, something we particularly need these difficult times…

English pudding is one of such festive cakes, but it is somewhat too complicated, with lots of strange ingredients, while the Boozy Fruitcake I propose is quite simple, provided you have help chopping dried fruit, and do not spare the cost of real, aged Cognac, Armagnac, or Grand Marnier needed to douse the cake. 

There is also our morning treat: the somewhat heavy yeasted Seedy, Fruity and Nutty Bread, close to a fruit-nut cake, with complex, bold flavor I always have sliced in the freezer. We toast pieces to enjoy with our coffee.

A variation of this bread can become a vassilopita —the New Year’s cake where the lucky coin is hidden.

I used to make our family’s traditional rich, elaborate cake but recently I prefer the simpler Orange or Tangerine Olive Oil Cake, the one I soak in syrup and I often complement with jam or marmalade as well as with seasonal fruit to create a more elaborate dessert. It is a lighter version of my mother’s vassilopita, which she always baked for the New Year celebrations.

Our neighbor Ela’s New Year cake, is another idea: she bakes it halving her mother’s original recipe that calls for 16 egg whites…

This is a delicious, quite easy treat, especially if you have a surplus of eggs, as Ela does. Fortunately she shares with us some of the delicious eggs her hens lay this time of year!

Use the egg yolks to make Pots de Crème!  

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Melomakarona, the traditional Greek, fragrant, honey-infused Christmas cookies are my favorites! They are vegan, because people ate them during the days of Lent that precede Christmas according to the Orthodox doctrines that some people follow, even if they are not religious. Now they are being rediscovered, as baking with olive oil has become trendy, and even the NYT published a version recently. I have slightly updated my mother’s recipe –which she had from her own mother– adding some ground nuts in the dough.

I think you will find these cookies irresistible, but if you manage to save them for later, they will get even better the next days. They keep for up to 1 month so you may want to double the recipe, especially if you bake melomakarona with friends, as we usually do.

An extra bonus of this aromatic but healthy dough is that you can use it as pie crust, filling it with cooked apples, quince, or make an irresistible lemony tart with just Lemon Curd as its filling. 

A recent favorite of ours is the old German Lebkuchen  which are fragrant with the enticing Lebkuchen Spice Mix.  It contains all kinds of spices, even ground coriander seeds, but strangely, no ginger! The blogger whose recipe I fam following, strangely calls it German Gingerbread Spice Mix, probably because she caters to Americans, for whom Lebkuchen is not a household name. My only addition to her recipe is an extra 2/3 cup finely ground almonds or almond meal because I don’t use the rice-paper wafers –difficult to find on our island—and wanted to make the dough somewhat thicker. Also, Costas and I prefer the cookies plain, or just drizzled with some bitter chocolate, so I skip the full dipping in chocolate the recipe calls for.

Also traditionally prepared for Christmas and the New Year, kourambiedes are delicate melt-in-the-mouth cookies. You find similar cookies in various Middle Eastern countries, often sprinkled with rose water or citrus flower water just before they are rolled in confectioner’s sugar. The old Greek island recipes called for lard, as butter was not a common ingredient. There are also recipes for kourambiedes made with the strongly-flavored sheep’s milk butter, while there are Lenten versions made entirely with olive oil. Today most homes and bakeries prepare the cookies exclusively with butter, but I love this old, Cycladic version. The last years I have become addicted to the kourambiedes baked by Tsourtis, our best island baker in Hora, the main town. He basically uses butter, but also some sheep’s milk butter and bakes his cookies in his wood-fired oven, which gives his kourambiedes an irresistible nutty flavor!

See also my take on the classic Ginger Snap Cookies, based on the recipe of King Arthur Baking.

I reduced the amount of sugar in the mix since the topping makes them far too sweet, anyway. Also I prefer to make them with olive oil instead of any ‘shortening,’ and of course I use grated fresh ginger that gives them a lovely, fragrant kick.

As for the ‘molasses’ mentioned, the only kind we have here is Grape Molasses, which has a wonderfully deep flavor. In Greece the traditional Moustokouloura (grape molasses cookies) are vegan –no egg– as they are a favorite Lenten treat. But frankly, these gingery ones are far better-tasting and easier (!)

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I first tasted the cabbage and carrot salad at Ourania’s Tavern, on Samos island, and was fascinated. Ourania, the owner and cook, told us that the longer you leave the salad in the fridge, the better it gets;  she was right, of course.

Adding fruity olive oil and maybe 1-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard her ‘marinade’ becomes my go-to vinaigrette for all kinds of seasonal, mixed salads. 

4 to 6 servings

4 – 5 cups finely shredded green cabbage (about 1/2 a medium cabbage) 

3 medium carrots, peeled, and shredded  

1/4 cup fresh orange juice 

1/4 cup white ‘balsamic’ vinegar 

About 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon or more ground black pepper

3–4 small dill pickles (about 2 inches long), halved lengthwise and thinly sliced  (optional)

1/2 cup halved, and seeded red bell pepper, finely cut into thin strips

A small handful of fresh mint leaves

Fruity olive oil 

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage and carrots with the orange juice and vinegar, the salt and pepper. Rub, squeeze and toss the cabbage mixture with your hands until reduced in volume by about a half. 

(The salad can be prepared up to this point a few hours in advance, or even a few days, then covered and refrigerated.)

In the serving bowl, combine the cabbage, pickles, if you are using them, with the red pepper, and some coarsely shredded mint leaves. 

Drizzle liberally with fruity olive oil and taste to adjust the seasonings, adding more salt, pepper, vinegar or orange juice, if needed. Garnish with mint leaves and serve.

VARIATION:

For a colorful, mixed salad use all or some of the following: any lettuce (romaine, frisée, iceberg), purslane (if available), maybe some diced cucumber, small tomatoes, chopped olives (green or black), along with sliced orange, and shredded radicchio for the bitterness we so much love, plus fragrant mint.

Dress it with the above described orange juice and vinegar, adding maybe 1-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, of course, and plenty of fruity olive oil!

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We were very grateful not only for the much-needed water, but for the comforting, cool  temperatures after a very hot summer.  We still have some vegetables, and hope for a few nice oranges, soon.

We started to get ripe, yet small fruit from the arbutus bush, and soon we will be harvesting the first oranges. 

The few, aromatic quinces we got are ripening in a basket, and are soon going to be used in meat and vegetarian dishes, also, of course in our cakes as well as in jams, and spoon sweets (fruit preserves).  

A low layer of green grass now covers the property, and our rose bushes are filled with tiny oblong red berries, and the big carob tree is filled with foul-smelling flowers buzzing with bees –an unexpected end-of-season treat for them. In Crete, where carob trees are ubiquitous in the rocky mountains, I heard that the densely-flavored carob honey is considered the best for melomakarona, the Christmas cookies.    

The disappointment and frustration with our pomegranate trees continues for one more year. The fruit rot and fall before they even ripen properly. Fortunately our two, potted dwarf, ornamental pomegranates are thriving!

Costas will prune the mulberry tree that provided its deep shade on our summer veranda, where we cook with our guests. He will then start pruning the olive trees, a major project we have to repeat every two years –not a single olive this fall..  

We planted a few micro greens in large shallow pots, and soon, we will probably harvest the very last eggplants, along with the a couple of tiny tomatoes we left on the plant just in case they ripen.

But we will still have plenty of peppers, both green and red, to make grill for meze and fry to make spreads. They often keep growing all through December…

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I liked the idea of adding warm spices, but increased the number of other fruits –oranges, apples, and particularly lemons—which beautifully complement the carrots’ one-dimensional sweetness. Also, I didn’t over-process the fruit to get a very smooth jam, as the recipe suggests.

My carrot jam is somewhat tart, much closer to my most favorite citrus-fruit marmalades. But you can add more honey or sugar to make it sweeter, as most people probably would prefer it…

Serve with creamy, thick yogurt, with fresh cheese –like myzithra or ricotta– or with the very creamy manouri cheese. I also like to spread it on slices of my Orange, Lemon or Tangerine Olive-oil Cake. 

At Molly’s Rise and Shine in New Orleans their very smooth carrot jam is served with granola and yogurt, topped with orange segments and blackberries.

PHOTO from the restaurant’s FaceBook page.

Makes about 2.2 quarts (liters)

2 pounds carrots (1 kilo) cut into 2.5-inch pieces, then each piece halved lengthwise; depending on the carrot’s thickness, each carrot half cut lengthwise into 2-3 sticks

2 medium-size Granny Smith apples (about 2/3 pound, 350 grams), cored, and cut into long chunks

3 oranges halved, pitted, and cut into thin slices

4 lemons halved, pitted, and  cut into thin slices

2 cups orange juice

1 cup water or more, as needed

1 cup granulated sugar, or more as needed (to taste) 

Pinch of salt

SPICES –tied in a piece of cheesecloth

5 cardamom pods, lightly smashed

4 whole star anise

2 cinnamon sticks

½ cup honey or more, as needed

1/4 cup lemon juice

Full fat, thick yogurt, myzithra (ricotta-like cheese), or creamy manouri for serving (optional)

In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan place the carrots, apples, oranges, lemons and add the sugar, the orange juice, and the water, as well as the spices in the cheesecloth, and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high, stirring occasionally.

Cover with a piece of parchment paper and a lid, lower the heat to medium-low and cook; cook, stirring occasionally, until carrots are crisp-tender, about 40 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are very tender, and the liquid has reduced to a thin, syrupy consistency, 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and transfer the carrot mixture to a food processor or blender. Mash to get a somewhat coarse mixture. Alternatively, you can mash the carrot and fruit in the pot with a stick blender.

 Transfer the mashed carrots etc. back to the pot, add the honey and lemon, and cook another 10 minutes, stirring often. Taste and add more honey or sugar if you want –I prefer this jam on the sour side, as all my marmalades.  

Discard the spices and transfer the jam to clean, warm jars. Fill almost to the top, close the lids, and let the jars cool and seal. Keep in a cool place or in the refrigerator. As this jam has little sugar it may spoil sooner than most other fruit preserves and jams.  

If you like, spoon yogurt into bowls, and top with dollops of spicy carrot jam.

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This much lighter festive bread is in fact an interesting variety of the traditional raisin bread (stafidopsomo).  It comes from Mykonos, the now cosmopolitan Cycladic island, and was given to me by Anna Sigala, my old neighborhood baker from the days I used to live under the Akropolis.

Anna had told me that she learned to make it from her grandmother. Now that Koukaki –the area around Acropolis– has become extremely popular with both locals and foreign visitors, Takis, Anna’s son, transformed the old bakeshop into a much-written about  bakery where tourists line up to get sandwiches, pies, and sweets.

My mother and father hated raisin bread because, for a period during the 1930s, the Greek government made it compulsory for everyone buying any kind of bread to buy some raisin bread, too.  The Ministry of Agriculture had bought all the raisins from Corinth to keep the growers satisfied, for political reasons, and then invented this method to get rid of the surplus.

Later, when this stupid regulation was no longer applied, raisin breads disappeared from the bakeries because no one would buy them.  Only recently, more than three generations later, raisin bread has again become popular.

Athenian bakeries often slice tsoureki and other flavored breads and bake them again, to make delicious, light biscotti; you can do the same with this one, if you have any leftover.

I love it with spicy cheese, like Rockford and Gorgonzola, or simply with coffee or tea; I also use as a base for English trifle or summer pudding, much like my older version of pumpkin and tangerine bread.

Makes 3 small loaves

1 cup yellow cornmeal

6 ½ cups bread flour or all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon instant dry yeast (see note 1)

1 teaspoon ground mahlep (see note 2)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons finishing, somewhat coarse sea salt

1 teaspoon mastic tears (see note 2)

About 2 ½ cups orange juice, as needed

2 very small or one large tangerine, ends sliced off, then quartered to remove any pips

1 cup baked, mashed squash (preferably butternut squash)

¼ cup marmalade, preferably homemade

1-2 tablespoons honey (optional)

1 ½ cups raisins (about 200 grams)

½ cup sesame seeds and/or Nigella seeds

Olive oil for the bowl and the plastic wrap

1-2 tablespoons grape molasses to brush the loaves (optional)

Place flours, and the yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer and toss with a spatula. In a mortar beat the salt with the mastic tears to make a powder and add, together with the mahlep, cinnamon and cloves in the bowl with the flours and toss again to mix.

In the blender add 1 cups orange juice, the quartered tangerine(s) –peel and all—the baked squash, the marmalade, and the honey, if using, and pulse to chop and mix.

Make a well in the center of the flours and add the orange mixture from the blender, and one more cup orange juice. Fit the bowl to the mixer and work with the dough hook on low for 1 minute.

With the motor running add the rest of the orange juice and a little water, as needed, and work to make a dough somewhat wet and sticky that would start to come off the sides of the bowl. Add the raisins and keep working the dough on medium-low for about 5-6 minutes. If it feels too dry, add a little water, if too wet add a few tablespoons all-purpose flour. Occasionally stop and turn over the dough with a large spatula.

Lightly oil a large transparent or semi-transparent bowl, as well as a piece of plastic wrap. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball.  Transfer to the oiled bowl. Cover with the oiled plastic wrap and let rise until it almost doubles, about 2 hours or more.

(When the dough has expanded to about 1 1/2 times its size you may transfer the bowl with the dough to the refrigerator, and leave it overnight and up to 24 hours. It will continue to rise slowly. Before proceeding further, bring to room temperature).

Spread the sesame seeds and/or Nigella seeds on a platter and sprinkle liberally with water.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 3 with a dough scraper. Form 3 loaved with each piece of dough and roll them on the platter with the seeds, then transfer into cake pans lined with parchment paper. Cover loosely with oiled plastic and let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until visibly expanded –they don’t need to double in size.

Preheat the oven to 375º F (200 C)

With scissors cut slits half-way into the bread and brush with the molasses if you like. Bake for 30 minutes then lower the temperature to 350 F (180 C) and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes, until golden and hollow sounding. An instant-read thermometer should read 200 F in the center of the bread.

Transfer to a rack and let cool completely before slicing.

NOTES

1. Both Costas and I love our breads somewhat dense; but if you like it lighter you can increase the Instant Dry Yeast adding 1 more teaspoon.
2. Instead of the traditional Greek mastic and mahlep, you could use cardamom –about 1 ½-2 teaspoons, I suggest.

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 Photo by Anastasios Mentis from my ‘Mediterranean Hot and Spicy’

Serves 6

2 tablespoons orange zest

1 1/4 cups sugar, or more to taste

6 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice

1/3 cup sweet white wine, preferably Samos

6 slices dried orange (recipes follows), to decorate

In a bowl mix the zest with the sugar and let stand for 1-2 hours at room temperature, stirring every now and then.

Pour 1 cup water over the sugar, add the cornstarch and stir to dissolve it. Transfer to a saucepan over medium heat and cook stirring until sugar is completely dissolved. Add orange juice and wine and continue stirring until the mixture thickens.

Pour in 6 individual glasses, let cool and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Top with the dried orange slices and serve.

Dried Orange Slices

With a special citrus knife, or a good serrated knife cut one or more oranges in half, and each half in very thin slices. Spread the slices on a baking dish lined with parchment paper and place in a very low oven (about (180º F). Let the slices dry for about 3-5 hours, depending on their thickness. Let cool, and store in a bag in the freezer.

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Serves 4-5

One 3-4 pounds (1 1/2-2 kilos) chicken or 3-4 whole chicken legs

6-7 rosemary sprigs

2 heads garlic; peel the cloves from one, and cut the other in half, horizontally

3-4 pieces preserved lemon or more, depending on the size

2 large, naval oranges, halved. Juice the three pieces, and thinly slice the remaining orange half

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2-3 teaspoons Maraş or Aleppo pepper or 1/2-1  seeded fresh jalapeño peppers, to taste 

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon turmeric

2 teaspoons ground allspice 

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup white wine

Finishing salt (optional)

Line the Dutch oven with parchment paper and scatter a few of the rosemary sprigs at the bottom.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC)

Make the paste: In a blender or small food processor add the peeled garlic cloves, the preserved lemon–without rinsing the pieces, the orange juice —reserving the slices— the mustard, the pepper, the cumin,  turmeric and allspice. Pour in the olive oil and the wine and process to get a somewhat chunky, but runny paste.

Place the chicken over the rosemary sprigs and wearing gloves massage it all over, inside and out with the paste, carefully lifting the skin and inserting some of the paste under it, especially on the breast, to give it more flavor. Turn the chicken and rub the other side as well and then rest it on its back and place the orange slices over the breast and drumsticks—if they slide, secure them in place with toothpicks.

Place the halved garlic next to the chicken and scatter the rest of the rosemary around the bird. Cover loosely with a piece of parchment paper and the lid and place at the bottom half of the oven.

Roast for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 280ºF (135º C) and roast another 45 minutes. Check to see if it is cooked through by inserting a knife into the thickest part of the upper leg: the juices should be clear, not pinkish. If it is not cooked, cover and continue roasting another 15-20 minutes, until cooked through.

Increase the heat to 480ºF (250º C), uncover and lightly spray the chicken with water, then let it roast another 10 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Serve immediately and carve, pouring sauce from the pan over each piece and sprinkling with finishing salt, if you like. Preserved lemons are usually very salted so additional salt is probably not needed.

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