Seasonal fruit is the dessert of choice among traditional Greeks, a custom maintained to this day both at home and in tavernas. But the Greek sweet repertoire is nonetheless large and diverse. Generally, they fall into several categories: spoon sweets; whole-pan baked sweets; creams; fried and honey-drizzled sweets; cookies and biscuits; confections.

I. Spoon Sweets - Glika tou Koutaliou

It used to be that every home cook worth her salt was adept at putting up fruit in syrup. The spoon sweets of Greece, lovely concoctions that are prepared according to the bounty of every season, are, by far, one of the country's longstanding traditions. Spoon sweets -so called because they are served on small plates and eaten with a small spoon and a glass of cool water- require skill and attention to detail, in order to prepare well. Every fruit behaves differently when heated and submerged in syrup, and no doubt, some spoon sweets are much more difficult and time-consuming to prepare. Today, their preparation is an art all but lost among modern home cooks. The task of making them has been assumed by large food companies, but luckily in recent years several very good artisans have begun to make and sell these sweets on a small scale.

As mentioned above, they follow the seasons. Here is a brief list of seasonal spoon sweets. Of course, since they are preserved in syrup, spoon sweets keep well and can be eaten all year round.

Spring:

Karidaki: walnut spoon sweet, made with immature, green walnuts.
Fistiki: pistachio spoon sweet, made with immature pistachios. A specialty of Aegina.
Siko: fig spoon sweet; this is one of several versions, made in spring with small, green, immature figs.

Summer:

Rodopetalo: rose petal spoon sweet, a specialty of Hios and the Peloponnese.
Karpouzi: watermelon rind preserved in syrup (made with young melons).
Visino: sour cherry spoon sweet.
Kerasi: cherry spoon sweet.
Verikoko: apricot spoon sweet.
Tomataki: small tomatoes preserved in syrup.

Late summer:

Stafili: grape spoon sweet, a specialty of Crete.
Stafida: raisin spoon sweet, a specialty of Crete.
Melitzanaki: small eggplants preserved in syrup.
Siko: dried figs in syrup.

Fall:

Kidoni: quince spoon sweet, considered one of the finest.
Firiki: small apples, a specialty of Mt. Pilio.

Winter:

Neratzi: young still-green, bitter oranges, preserved whole or at a later stage, when ripened, in which case only the rind is preserved.
Portokali: orange rind spoon sweet.
Pergamondo: bergamot, a kind of citrus fruit.

II. Whole-Pan Sweets (tou tapsiou)

This category of sweets includes almost anything baked and later drenched in syrup. Among the best-known such sweets are:

Baklava
Galaktoboureko (custard-filled phyllo pie)
Kataifi (shredded wheat, nut-filled pastry)
Revani (Syrup-soaked semolina cake)
Karidopita (Syrup-soaked walnut cake)

III. Biscuits and Cookies

Greeks eat lots of different kind of biscuits and cookies. Among them:

Voutimata: these might be translated as "dunking" biscuits. They generally are not all that sweet and are taken with morning coffee, hence their name.

Koulourakia: these are butter-based cookies in various shapes and flavored with everything and anything, from orange juice to brandy and/ or ouzo, to spices such as cumin. There are also special Easter koulourakia, shaped into twists, coils, etc.

Melomakarona: one of the classic Greek winter holiday cookies, made with flour and walnuts, then, once baked, dipped in honey syrup.

Kourabiedes: another classic on the Christmas and New Year's tables. These are basically shortbread cookies rich in almonds and dusted with confectioner's sugar.

IV. Creams

There are several well know dessert creams, among them:

Rizogalo, or rice pudding.
Moustalevria: an unusual, seasonal preparation made by simmering grape must and flour.

V. Confections

Pasteli: when Greece produced tons of sesame, pasteli was made all over the country. Now, most sesame is imported but the confection, basically made of sesame seeds (or sometimes with nuts) set in honey like a brittle, is still a classic.

Soutzouk Loukoum: this is an interesting confection from the north of Greece, made by stringing walnuts and dipping them in moustalevria or in a sweet mixture based on cornstarch, until the walnuts are totally coated and the resulting sweet resembles a sausage.

Amigdalota: this is the name for almond confection in Greek, a general term which can include many different, regional recipes. Usually, these are made with blanched almond paste and shaped into pears, balls or small logs. Sometimes, they are baked. Almost always, though, they are covered with confectioner's sugar.

Vanilia or Mastiha: sugar pastes flavored either with vanilla or with mastic that are dipped into a glass of ice water and sucked off the spoon.

VΙ. Fried Sweets

Fried sweets in the Greek dessert repertoire usually refer to some kind of pastry, either filled or like a fritter. Among such popular sweets are:

Diples: dough fritters drizzled with honey and nuts
Loukoumades: fried dough puffs doused with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.
Svigi: another kind of dough puff, akin to the French beignets.

Halvah

Like the dolma and baklava, halvah is one of those dishes found from the Balkans to India and claimed as its own by every culture and country in between. For Greeks, halvah is often one of the main sweets of Lent, but it is also eaten all year round.

In Greece, there are several versions:

Farsala, near Volos, is famous for its smooth-textured halvah, known either as Sapoune (sa-poo-nai) or as Halvah Farsalon. It is made of rice flour or cornstarch and is opaque and unctuous with a crisp tasty topping of burnt sugar.

Halvah tis Rinas is a semolina-based halvah, made in a saucepan.

Makedonikos Halvah is the common tahini-based block, savored with lemon juice and retsina.