Laconian sweets are simple and generous. Diples – thin dough folded into bows and spirals, fried and covered in honey, cinnamon and walnuts – are made for weddings, christenings and other celebrations.
Oranges appear again in orange pie, topped with caramelised slices, and in orange cookies. Samousades, a sweet going back to Byzantine times, are rolls of nuts and sesame soaked in honey syrup. Amygdalota are pear-shaped almond sweets with a clove on top and a coat of icing sugar, found in most pastry shops in Sparta, and skaltsounia are biscuits filled with walnuts, apple, raisins and cinnamon.