Bakers Create Modern Versions of Melomakarona in Thessaloniki

Confectioners and bakers in Thessaloniki have created modern and innovative versions of melomakarona, the most traditional Christmas dessert in Greece.

After all, Thessaloniki is indisputably number one when it comes to Greek sweets.

Using their imagination they have been offering melomakarona cake, melomakarona as a spoon sweet, melomakarona in a croissant, and melomakarana as a topping for ice cream. Difficult to choose for the festive table!

Pastry chef Pepi Beza had an idea of creating a gingerbread cake for Christmas during the summer while enjoying her ice cream, Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA) reports.

“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”.

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.

Giorgos Avgeros, owner of a pastry shop in the center of Thessaloniki and known for his chocolate-themed creations, created melomakarona that are eaten with a spoon.

He seels melomakarona spread in a jar that can be spread on a slice of bread or eaten with a spoon.

“The sweet in the jar can be taken by someone even at work. We also make it possible for melomakarona to travel beyond Greece. 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”, Avgeros told AMNA.

Melomacarona in a croissant

And if someone wants it for breakfast or for a snack, they can find it in a 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 Kallidou.

The croissants are empty and lovers of Christmas flavors choose their favorite flavor as soon as they pass the bakery door. Melomakarana will also be available in the form of an expensive “Swiss chocolate bar”, as it will be coated with chocolate, chestnut and brandy.

Melomakarona ice cream in Thessaloniki

Businessman, Stelios Ribas, offers melomakarona 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 melomakarona. Customers have started asking for it together with their frozen yogurt and it will go much better once we get into full festive rhythm”, Ribas told AMNA.

Several pastry shops in Thessaloniki have chosen to serve melomakarona in ice cream balls during the winter. Among the other flavors of their favorite confection, customers will have the opportunity to choose “melomakarona flavor”, the only flavor in the refrigerators that has a shelf life as long as the Christmas holidays.

For the more traditional version of melomakarona please follow the link