Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, semolina, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together the oils and brandy until smooth. In a large measuring glass or medium bowl, house the fresh squeezed orange juice. Add to it the baking soda and whisk. When it begins to foam up, immediately pour it into the bowl with the wet ingredients, along with the zest, and whisk in. Add in the sifted powdered sugar and whisk in.
Next, add the dry mixture into the wet, in 4 batches, mixing with your hand to get everything incorporated. Once flour is absorbed, stop mixing.
Form balls and then shape them into oblong cookies. Place them on your cookie sheet and then use a fork to lightly puncture the tops (see tiktok video above) in four rows. Bake for 20 minutes or until cookies turn light golden.
Syrup:
In a medium pot, combine the sugar, water, cinnamon stick, whole cloves and lightly squeeze the lemon into the mixture (just a small sprinkle of juice should come out). Toss the lemon into the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it begins to boil, lower the heat to medium low, cover it and cook for 5 minutes. Finally, uncover and mix in the honey.
Assembly:
NOTE: It is very important to let the cookies cool off completely before submerging them into the hot syrup. Conversely you can make your syrup first and let that cool off and when the cookies come out warm from the oven, you can dredge them through the sauce. You should NEVER dip a warm cookie into hot syrup.
Work in batches of 4 or 5 cookies, submerging them in heated, simmering syrup for about 15-20 seconds each batch. Use a slotted spoon flip them over occasionally and then to remove them from the pot and transfer to a platter. IMMEDIATELY sprinkle them with the crushed walnuts and press them down, so that the nuts stick to the cookie when they are still wet from the syrup.
Notes
Store your cookies immediately in an airtight container on your counter. FYI: These cookies taste better the day after you make them. They have really soaked up the honey syrup and that's when they adopt the melt-in-your-mouth texture.