← Nouns Cooking · Greek

Ingredients

• 300 g Sugar
• 100 g Honey
• 400 ml Water
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 1 strip of lemon peel and 1 tbsp juice
• 250 g Walnuts, finely chopped or coarsely ground
• 120 g fine dried breadcrumbs or crushed rusks
• 60 g plain flour
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 1 orange, zest only
• 120 g butter, softened
• 150 g Sugar
• 5 eggs, separated
• 60 ml Milk
• 2 tbsp Brandy or cognac (optional)

Method

1. Make the syrup first: simmer the sugar, honey, water, cinnamon and lemon peel for 5 min, then stir in the lemon juice and leave to cool completely.
2. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, 350°F) and butter a 23 × 33 cm tin. Mix the walnuts, breadcrumbs, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and orange zest.
3. Beat the butter and sugar for 3–4 min until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolks one at a time, followed by the milk and brandy.
4. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to firm peaks. Stir the walnut mixture into the butter mix, then fold in the whites in three additions, keeping as much air as possible.
5. Spread into the tin and bake for 35–40 min until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
6. As soon as it comes out of the oven, cut into diamonds and ladle the cold syrup slowly over the hot cake. Leave for at least 2 hours to soak before serving.

Tips

• Contains nuts (walnuts), eggs, dairy and gluten.
• Hot cake plus cold syrup (or the other way round) is the rule; both hot makes it soggy.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

My Greek Dish Diane Kochilas Dimitras Dishes