It is the most traditional Christmas dessert, sprinkled with honey and walnuts. Honey macaroons, sometimes plain and sometimes “dressed” with dark or white chocolate, are a favorite flavor and are not missing from any festive table. However, since the quantity is never enough, no matter how many sweets one eats during the holiday season, confectioners and bakers of Thessaloniki put their imaginations to work and create new “versions” of sweets based on melomakarono.

In some cases, the idea was “born” at a …invalid moment. As for example with the pastry chef, Pepi Beza, who during the summer and while enjoying her ice cream, due to the high temperatures, thought of creating a gingerbread cake for Christmas.

So she very quickly began the tests in her laboratory in Pylaia, despite the fact that she was wearing short sleeves and the temperature was over 30 degrees Celsius. “We put imagination and passion into Christmas sweets and we have been working on new recipes since the summer. And while I was eating ice cream, I thought of making a honey macaroon cake. Full of Christmas smells, with walnuts, with cinnamon, orange, spices and butter”, explained Ms. Beza to APE – BEA.

Since the beginning of autumn, the first samples had been produced to see if the recipe was good, and she finally ended up putting it into production for her customers during the holiday season. “It’s a very special and different cake, based on gingerbread,” adds the pastry chef.

And for the younger children, but also for those who feel like children, Mrs. Beza has also produced gingerbread Christmas cookies with gingerbread flavor.

Melomakaron on the spoon

They are honey macaroons that are eaten with a spoon. Giorgos Avgeros, known for his chocolate-themed creations, owner of a pastry shop in the center of Thessaloniki, created honey macaron spread in a jar so that fans can put the taste of the dessert on a slice of bread or eat it with a spoon.

“The sweet, closed in the jar, can be taken by someone even at work. We also make it possible for this melomakarono to travel to all foreign countries. There are quite a few tourists who see the spread in the pastry shop’s window, buy it and then through their luggage it reaches the Christmas tables in every corner of the earth”, emphasizes Mr. Avgeros.

Melomacaron in a croissant

And if someone wants it for breakfast or for a snack, they can find it in …croissant. The idea for a croissant with plenty of Christmas aroma came from the baker Elena Kallidou, who runs a third-generation bakery in Botsari and specializes in innovative flavors.

“It’s a croissant filled with broken gingerbread, with soft cream, a little unsweet to balance with the Christmas dessert. We sprinkle it with walnuts and cinnamon and give something special to the customer. We specialize in croissants with a total of twenty flavors, including cheesecake, mille feuille. For this reason, we decided to release a seasonal one as well”, explains Mrs. Kallidou to APE – MEP.

The croissants are empty and lovers of Christmas flavors choose their favorite flavor as soon as they pass the bakery door. In the same place of Mrs. Kallidou, from the next few days, the melomakarono will also be available in the form of an expensive “Swiss chocolate bar”, as it will be coated with chocolate, chestnut and brandy.

And because there is the traditional “contra” with the courabier, throughout the holidays, customers can also choose croissants filled with the white sweet with powdered sugar so that there are no “misunderstandings”.

Gingerbread ice cream and topping in frozen yogurt

The entrepreneur, Stelios Ribas, offers melomakarono to his customers as a topping on frozen yogurt. The sweet, “broken” into small pieces, comes to add to the sweetness for those who want to combine the two seasons on their palate: summer and winter.

“We thought of giving a festive note, a traditional Christmas flavor. And it couldn’t be any other than melomakarono. Customers have started asking for it together with their frozen yogurt and it will go much better once we get into full festive rhythm”, Mr. Ribas tells APE – BE.

It is typical that several pastry shops in the city have chosen to serve melomakarono in ice cream balls during the winter.

Among the other flavors of the favorite confection, customers will have the opportunity to choose “melomakaron flavor”, the only flavor in the refrigerators that has a shelf life as long as the Christmas holidays.