Ella Mittas is based in Melbourne, and her cooking is heavily influenced by her Greek heritage. She teaches cooking classes, curates and caters food events around the city, and has published a cookbook “Ela! Ela! To Turkey and Greece, a journey home through food”.

We asked Ella to pick a recipe from her new book to suit one of our fragrances, and she paired this spiced cookie recipe with our spiciest scent, Cobalt Amber.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Add the oil and sugar to a bowl and mix to combine.

2. Add the semolina, orange zest and juice, salt, cloves and cinnamon and mix for another minute.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder and Madeira, then pour into the semolina mix, followed by the ground nuts.

4. Once that is all incorporated, start to gradually add in the flour, kneading to create a soft, oily dough.

5. Turn the dough out onto a working surface, adding a little more flour if it’s too soft and difficult to shape.

6. Knead for 2–3 minutes, then cover and let rest for 20 minutes in the fridge.

7. Roll dough into golf ball-sized biscuits. Take your time doing this: if the biscuits aren’t well formed they’ll crack when baking.

8. Place the cookies about 4 centimetres apart on trays lined with baking paper and press a fork on the surface to create ridges.

9. Bake for about 25 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown and sound hollow when you tap them.

10. Meanwhile, make the syrup: in a medium saucepan, simmer the sugar, honey and water for five minutes and remove from the heat. Let cool.

11. Drop six to eight hot cookies at a time into the honey syrup and let them soak for about a minute—or a bit longer, depending on how soft or crunchy you’d like your melomakarona.

12. Once the biscuits have been soaked, sprinkle the crushed walnuts over them for garnish.