Ivy Liacopoulou

Ivy Liacopoulou grew up in Limassol, Cyprus, a beautiful island in the eastern Mediterranean, where her passion for cooking began as a child, helping her mother in the kitchen. Ivy belongs to a new generation of home cooks who loves to experiment and create new recipes of her own. She is the author of two cookbooks and she owns and manages Cooking Classes, in Nafplio, Peloponnese.

Melomakarona are Greek spicy Christmas olive oil and flour – semolina cookies drenched in a honey syrup and sprinkled with walnuts on top.

This time of the year I don’t feel like posting any other recipes than cookies or cakes so I’ve opened my file and found lots of recipes I made throughout the year and I think this would be the best time to post them. I am starting with one recipe which I made last Christmas …

Pastitsia, are the Cypriot Almond coookies, also called amygdalota. They are made with almonds and meringue, similar to macaron but they are crunchy outside, soft inside and chewy.

These melt in your mouth kourabiedes (Kourabies (pl. kourabiedes, pronounced kou-rah-be-EH-thez), are the Greek shortbread cookies made during Christmas.

Trahanas (pronounced trah-hah-NAHS), is a traditional Greek and Cypriot product, made from cracked wheat flour and a goat milk curd that is fermented.

One of the dishes we tried in Rome was ravioli and I loved their sauce. I don’t know what kind of sauce they make but it was delicious and as I had never served ravioli with a sauce before, I decided to make a marinara sauce to serve them. In the Piazza di Campo dei …

This Christmas Chocolate Wafer Coconut Roulade is made with a biscuit base crust and is filled with pastry cream, topped with chocolate ganache.

Agginaropita is a delicious Greek pie made with artichokes and leeks. It is is great for lunch with a salad and leftovers can be eaten for breakfast or brunch.

Kaltsounia or Lychnarakia are Cretan cookies, traditionally made during Easter. They have a sweet pastry shell and are filled with anthotyro (ricotta).

A twist to the Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake made with red candied fruit such as strawberries, cherries, candied eggplant, dried cranberries and cherry jam.