Paximadia Recipe: Double—baked Greek cookies
A traditional recipe for double-baked olive oil cookies with almonds. These Greek Paximadia (or better yet, paximadakia) are similar to biscotti—tender, crunchy, delicious, and naturally vegan!
Servings: 50 cookies
Calories: 127kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup olive oil or half olive and half other vegetable oil
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons Raki or Grappa, Kirsch, or even vodka.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 orange (the zest)
- 4 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ cup roasted almonds, chopped or roughly processed in the food processor (measure them chopped)
Instructions
- In a bowl mix together the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt.Add the olive and mix with a whisk (or with your hand) until sugar is almost dissolved.Add the orange juice, raki, vanilla, orange zest, and mix to combine.
- In another bowl mix 4.5 cups of the flour (580 grams) with the baking powder and the almonds and add them to the olive oil mixture.Mix gently until just combined and set aside for 15 minutes to rest.
- Preheat oven to 356°F (180°C) and line a baking pan with baking sheet.
- After 15 minutes, you should have a soft but pliable dough that doesn’t stick to your hands. If it is sticky, add some extra flour, until pliable.Divide mixture into 4 equal parts and shape 4 cylinders, approximately 1.5 inches (4 cm) in diameter.
- Place cylinders on the pan, leaving some space between them because they will spread out a bit.Using a knife or another sharp object, cut each cylinder vertically (like the picture) into slices (about 0.5 inch thick) but don’t separate the pieces.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden. Let them cool.
- Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).
- Using a sharp knife cut and separate the biscotti and lay them flat, the one next to the other, on your baking pan.Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until browned.Let on a rack to cool.Eat!
Notes
Some people like to use ground mastic (about 2 tears) and almond extract (2-3 drops) as additional flavorings, but I usually don’t.
Nutrition
Calories: 127kcal
