Creating the desserts were easier than the dinner. One of the first things I learned from researching all of this, is unlike us(Americans), Greeks call everything sweets. Doesn’t matter if it’s cake, cookies, or candy. They are sweets. They also use a lot of honey vs. sugar. With that said, I bought a huge bottle of honey. I may start cooking with honey more often than sugar. I have had conversations with friends who where trying a healthy lifestyle and honey or agave syrup was mentioned, but I grew up with sugar. If I can substitute honey, I will.

I also found out greeks were the first to create cheesecake!

Say what?!

An excuse to make cheesecake, snapples!

We had this ‘sweets’ menu:

Honey banana Greek cheesecake
Kourambiathes
Snickers Halvah(which I blogged about)
Chocolate Baklava(which I blogged about)

I was so excited about the Kourambiathes. I remember my aunt making a cookies just like these, but these were different. The base is confectioners sugar, butter, egg yolks, anise extract, and flour. I substituted the anise for orange extract, to make sure the cookies didn’t clash. Mixing that, and rolling them into little balls, I baked them for 18 minutes tops on 350 on a greased cookie sheet. After they are done, immediately coat in confectioners sugar. Of course I tasted one right after and they are great! Really easy, and not over bearing sweet.

I made the cheesecakes two nights before hand. I bought a pre made graham cracker crust. If you want to make one go for it. I’m semi homemade if we haven’t figured that out yet. In my blender, I mixed cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla extract, one banana, vanilla coconut almond milk, and 3 eggs. It made enough for two cheesecakes. Baking these at 350, it took almost two hours to cook. I think it was more because of the liquids, but they eventually browned and firmed like cheesecake should.

Coming back to today, I drizzled honey over the cake pieces individually. It was a great dish, and the cheesecake went fast! The kids definitely loved these sweets, on top of the Christmas regulars I had(sugar cookies and egg nog). I hope you enjoyed your holiday and got every thing you asked for! I sure did.

~CSM~