September 10,, 2018 – Sweet Korčula, an island with a seemingly endless supply of fabulous traditional home-made cakes and desserts. We are very grateful to Franica Tasovac for allowing us to serialise her excellent books called Sweet Korcula, Sweeties of Korcula Grannies (in English). It is a collection of no less than 30 ancient recipes for Korcula cakes and desserts, lovingly put together into a book. A delightful souvenir or gift for gourmet friends. Franica has kindly allowed us to serialise the recipes on TCN, and we will be bringing you a recipe a week from the kitchens of Korcula’s grandmothers throughout the year. You can read Claudia Tarle’s lovely introduction here.
They are made for St. Martin’s Day (11th November).
120 g of yeast
300 ml water
250 g fat (tallow, lard, butter)
50 ml brandy of roses
250 g sugar
1 vanilla sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 kg flour
100 g raisins
250 g (chopped almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and dried figs)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
zest of one lemon
zest of two oranges
Melt fat over a low heat and leave aside to cool down. Put the raisins in a bowl and pour brandy of roses. Crumble the yeast in the lukewarm water, add a little of sugar, sprinkle with flour and leave the yeast to increase twofold.
In a larger bowl, pour sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and spices. Stir all well, add the melted fat, and half the flour and yeast. Stir with hands, add raisins and chopped dried fruit, and, with the addition of flour, knead the dough which should not be too hard.
Cover the pan with dough and leave to double in size. This will take a few hours.
Heat the stove to 150°C.
Re-knead the raised dough and divide into 5 pieces. Form each piece into a ball and leave covered on the sheet metal another two hours to rise.
Cut each lojenice with a knife lengthwise and crosswise to give the shape of a net.
Bake for 40 minutes.
You can buy this booklet at:
Town library “ Ivan Vidali “
Flower shop “ Fiorino “
“ Manina “
“ Komo “
Tourist agency “ Kaleta “
Souvenir shop “ Suzy “
Bookshop “ Kutak knjiga “
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