Vanja’s festive shortbread cookies

Vanja Bulut was born in Bosnia. She was a young girl when war broke out and food became very difficult to find. Here she shares a traditional festive recipe from her homeland that everyone will enjoy.

“When the war in Bosnia started, we were in the thick of it for three years with very little food," says Vanja. "We survived on basic things we could make with flour and water, or on the green leaves we would pick outside. We didn't really have fruits or vegetables, or any meat. We were malnourished.”

Vanja came to Australia at the age of nine and grew up in Darwin. Her mother retrained as a chef and began working at a restaurant. Vanja says her own love of food and cooking comes from her mother.

"She taught me to cook by sight, smell and taste, as opposed to using recipes," she says. "You’d smell and taste the food as you cooked and then adjust it as necessary. It’s the old school way.”

Šape are traditional Balkan shortbread cookies made with walnuts.

“You don’t typically see cakes in Balkan homes during big celebrations, like Christmas or Easter,” says Vanja. “Instead, what you see are platters of small cookies, typically between five and 15 different types of them. Šape is one of those standard cookies that you’ll find on a platter in any Balkan house during a celebration. It's a classic biscuit and it's delicious.”

Recipe

MAKES 60 COOKIES | PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOK TIME 15 MINS 

For this recipe you will need stainless steel decorative biscuit moulds.

Ingredients
500g all-purpose flour 
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature 
250g walnuts, finely ground 
250g caster sugar 
3 eggs 
Powdered icing sugar (for coating cookies once baked) 
Cooking oil, for coating moulds 
Extra flour for dusting 

Method 
Preheat the oven to 200°C. 

In a large mixing bowl, using a hand or stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. When nice and fluffy, add in the eggs, one at a time. Add walnuts and flour to the bowl and stir (or use hands) until dough is formed. Add extra flour (if needed) until your hands are not sticky. 

Take moulds and coat them with some oil (using a spray, cloth or brush), and then dust some flour on the moulds. Fill the moulds with the dough, making sure not to overfill (at level or below level, as they will rise). 

Place moulds on a tray and then in the oven for 15 minutes, or until they start to turn golden. Take the tray out of the oven and let the moulds cool for a few minutes. 

Tip the cookies out of the moulds and, when cool, roll them in a plate of powdered icing sugar. You may need to reuse the moulds for the rest of the dough. If you do, no need to re-coat in oil or dust with flour.

Enjoy with family and friends!

Love this recipe? You can find more delicious dishes from current and former refugees in our cookbook, Flavours of Hope. 

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