Greek Grape Must Biscuits
“Moustokouloura”
I left Greece 18 years ago to attend University in Italy and still, after all this time there are days where I miss home incredibly. I miss the people, the good food and the intense blue sky. Sometimes I even miss annoying things such as bad driving and big backcombed hair (it’s still a thing!). As weird as it might sound, these things are familiar and remind me of the time I used to live there.
As you might have guessed, I made these pretty biscuits yesterday to fight my homesickness. If you’ve ever came across these you’ll know well how incredibly they smell when they are fresh out of the oven. This is mainly thanks to the grape must.
Don’t let this ingredient put you off as it is much easier to source than you might think. You can find it online easily as well as in a few corner shops.
Grape must is essentially boiled down grape juice. When cooked, thanks to its high sugar content it becomes dark and thick. Ancient Greeks and Romans used it as a sweetener. The modern name is Petimezi (Greek) and Mosto (Italian).
Μουστοκούλουρα
Moustokouloura
Ingredients
90g sugar
75g petimezi (grape must)
80g sunflower oil
40g olive oil
75 fresh orange juice
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground clove
1tbsp baking powder
360g flour
Bake at 180 for 20-30min (depending on the size of your biscuits)
Step by Step
Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon & ground clove in a bowl
In a separate bowl combine the sugar, the olive oil, sunflower oil, honey, orange juice and grape must
Mix the dry ingredients of the first bowl with the wet ingredients from the second bowl. You can easily do that with a wooden spoon
When the dough starts coming together knead for a minute by hand. Don’t handle it too long or all the oil will come out (true story!)
Shape the biscuits into little double braids or as you prefer. They come in all shapes and sizes!
Bake at 180 C for 20-30mins and let them cool down before you eat them
Tips & cheats
Try not to knead the dough too much or it will sweat out the oil. Just use your hands to quickly bring it together.
If the braid shape is not your thing feel free to change the shape. They will be equally yummy, no matter the shape!
When you take them out of the oven they should still feel a bit soft. They will become harder after they’ve cooled down.
Not having eggs or dairy these have an incredibly long shelf life. Just remember to close them in an airtight container.
These tend to grow a lot in the oven so keep that in mind when you shape them.
