June 7, 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 make them at all festive moments. The use of ammonia has remained for klašuni and cukarini. Korčulan housewives rightly say that those which are not with ammonia are not true klašuni.
Dough:
6 yolks
3 egg whites
300 grams of sugar
1 vanilla sugar
lemon zest
200 g butter
pinch of salt
30 g of ammonia (ammonium hydrogen carbonate – purchased at pharmacy) +100 ml milk
1 kg flour
Filling:
800 g almonds (ground)
300 ml of milk
250 g sugar
1 vanilla sugar
orange zest
50 ml brandy of roses
2 tablespoons of jam (fig, orange)
brandy of roses
sugar
Mix the butter with both kinds of sugar and salt. Slowly whisking, add one by one yolk and egg white. Mix until the mixture becomes foamy. Add lemon zest and sprinkle with plenty of flour. Pour the milk into a tall bowl and heat to boiling, and then pour ammonia (CAUTION: turn the head away because of a strong odour). Stir ammonia well; everything will soon become foamy so that one should quickly pour on flour. Slowly stir by hand while adding flour until the dough becomes fine. Leave the dough one hour to rest.
For filling, roast the almonds in the oven (15 minutes at 150°C). Grind the cooled down almonds and mix with all other ingredients. Warm milk and pour on the mixture of almonds.
Warm the oven to 180°C. Roll the dough into five pieces. Roll out flat each piece of dough on a floured surface. Put a full teaspoon of the filling at the very edge of the dough, fold and press with the glass to get a crescent shape. Line klašuni on the sheet metal, slightly apart as they grow during baking.
Bake them for 12 minutes.
Smear baked klašuni with brandy of roses, sprinkle with sugar and allow to air dry.
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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