… or Vanilice how we call them. It’s our traditional recipe, that our grandmothers love to make. Perfect sweet, little bites!
Usually, they are made with pork fat, but you can substitute it with butter. Be sure you leave them for a day or two in a cookie jar or a tin box so they can develop the taste and soften. I promise, they will melt in your mouth!
Vanilla cookies
Ingredients:
• 180 g butter
• 70 g pork fat (lard)*
• 1 egg
• 400-500 g flour
• 3 egg yolks
• 250 g sugar
• 250 g ground walnuts
• a pinch of salt
• zest of 1 lemon
• a pinch of baking powder
• apricot jam
• powdered sugar
• vanillin sugar
• round cookie cutter
Directions:
First, measure 400 g flour. You will add more later if you need it. Sift flour and add salt and baking powder. Add walnuts.
Dice butter and leave it with pork fat to soften on room temperature. Beat it with a mixer, while adding egg and egg yolks. Gradually, add sugar and then incorporate everything well.
Start adding flour mixed with walnuts in batches until you knead it into a medium soft dough. If needed, add more flour. Divide the dough into two equal parts, put each in a freezer bag and let rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 180°C/350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.
Take one piece of dough out of the fridge and flatten on a well floured working surface with a rolling pin to the thickness of 0,5 cm. Take out circles of dough using cookie cutter that you’ve dipped into flour. Place them on a baking sheet. When you’re done, take all the leftovers of dough, knead, flatten again and continue to cut out circles. Repeat until you use all the dough.
Bake until you notice they begin to get brown on the bottoms. It is very important not to burn them. Let baked cookies cool down and then spread some jam over the bottoms and stick two by two. Mix powdered sugar with vanillin sugar and roll each vanilica into it. Put cookies in cookie jar or tin and leave for a day to soften.
* substitute it with butter
