Finikia
Almost 30 years ago, I was in the hospital for several days after a hysterectomy. Back in those days, they actually kept you for more than an overnight when you had major surgery. Another thing about those days is that there were no iPhones or iPads to keep you busy. I shared the hospital room with a Greek woman around my age who also liked to cook and bake. So, we watched TV and chatted about our families and recipes. 🙂
Before I went into the hospital, I had made a visit to the library to check out a couple of books to bring with me to pass the time. One of the books I brought was a collection of international cookie recipes—almost one from every country you could name! I had come prepared with a pack of index cards intending to copy down all the cookie recipes that interested me.
The featured cookie from Greece was called “finikia,” and I asked my roommate if she had ever made them. She told me to forget about the recipe for finikia in the book because she had the best one ever—hah! Of course, I needed to get that recipe. She promised she would mail it to me, so I wrote down my name and address on one of my index cards and gave it to her. Well, when she was discharged and went home, true to her word, she wrote out the recipe on the same index card I had given her and mailed it to me. Even though I have most of my recipes in electronic files, I still have that index card in my recipe box. I also still have the large stack of index cards on which I had laboriously copied cookie recipe after cookie recipe.
Unless you’re Greek, you’re probably not familiar with finikia. It is a very special cookie usually made for the holidays. Like a lot of Greek desserts, it contains honey, walnuts, lemon juice, and lots of sugar. Think baklava! I would describe it as baklava in the form of a cookie.
Finikia isn’t a difficult cookie to make, but it does have several steps to it, so you need to allow enough time to make this special treat. You can’t just throw it together in 15 minutes and be done.
The first step is to mix together a very flavorful dough which is soft but very easy to handle and won’t stick to your fingers. You shouldn’t have to refrigerate it in order to form the cookies.
Once the dough is made, you set it aside to make the filling. If you have a food grinder, I highly recommend using it. I prefer the texture of the ground walnuts over the finely chopped walnuts. If you don’t have a food grinder, be sure to chop the walnuts as finely as you can. I wait until the cookies are baked before I make the syrup because it needs to be good and hot before you dip the cookies in.
So, you form 1” balls using a standard cookie scoop. As the dough is very easy to handle, it’s a snap to make an indentation in the ball and place 1/2 teaspoon of the filling in the middle and then fold it over to seal it inside. From there, you bake the cookies; and, when cool enough to handle, you immerse them in the hot syrup. Roll them a couple of times so that the entire cookie has a chance to soak in the syrup. You’ll need to find the balance between soaking them enough and soaking them too much which will cause them to fall apart. They’ll still be delicious, though—you’ll just need to eat the cookie with a fork!
Finikia
Ingredients for Cookies
- 2 sticks butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- Approx. 5 1/2 cups flour (enough to make a soft dough)
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Ingredients for Filling
- 1 cup finely chopped walnuts (need 1 1/2 cups for ground walnuts)*
- 3 tbl. sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
*The first couple of times I made these, I just bought finely chopped walnuts and used those in the filling. One cup of these walnuts worked out. The third time I made them, I used my Kitchen-Aid food grinder attachment. One cup was not enough. I ground another 1/2 cup of walnuts and ended up with a little bit left over. Not a problem since I just ate them! I really liked the consistency of the ground nuts in the filling.
Ingredients for Syrup
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tbl. fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup water
- 8 oz. honey (added after boiling above three ingredients)
Directions for Cookie
Cream butter; beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in oil. Add baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and vanilla; mix well. Add orange juice; then enough flour to make a soft, but not sticky, dough. Even though the dough will be soft, it will be very easy to handle. Set aside while you make filling.
Directions for Filling
Mix the finely chopped (or ground) walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon together; moisten with 2 to 3 tablespoons of syrup mixture. I found 3 tablespoons to be perfect to allow me to shape the filling (using a 1/2-teaspoon measure) and tap it out onto a plate to await inserting into the middle of the cookie.
Directions for Syrup
Boil the sugar, fresh lemon juice and water together until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add 8 oz. of honey. Stir well.
Assembly
Go back to dough and form into approximately 1″ balls (walnut-sized). I used my regular 1½-tablespoon cookie scoop.
Press your forefinger or thumb into the center of the dough balls to make an indentation. Place 1/2 teaspoon of filling in the indentation; then push and press dough over filling to seal it in so that it doesn’t fall out.
The traditional shape of finikia is oval, and it’s very easy to shape the cookie into an oval as you press and seal the filling inside.
I placed my cookies seam side up on the cookie sheet as I felt the filling might be closer to the bottom of the cookie. Don’t worry about smoothing out any lines where you have pinched the dough to seal it—most of them will disappear when they bake. In any event, when you sprinkle some chopped walnuts on top of them after you have rolled them in the hot honey syrup, they’ll look just fine.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350o F for 13 to 15 minutes. Mine were perfect at 14 minutes.
Cool cookies; then put a few at a time in hot syrup, totally immersing them. Roll them in order to soak all of the cookie.
Remove and drain on wax paper. Immediately sprinkle some chopped walnuts on top of them.
After the cookies are set, they will remain a bit sticky. Set them in a muffin paper liner for a nice presentation.
Makes approximately 60 cookies.
Fran’s Notes
Please note that eggs are not called for in this recipe!