Signature Dalmatian cookie to help plant trees in Croatia

Boranka cookie

Author of the best-selling Croatian Desserts cookbook, Andrea Pisac, has created a brand new, scrumptious dessert that smells and tastes of Dalmatia. 

Andrea’s sweet is called Boranka cookie because it is made of pine nuts (bor means a pine tree) and because she is dedicating it to the Boranka reforestation campaign.

Over the past two years, the Boranka campaign has planted more than 65,000 trees in areas in Dalmatia damaged by devastating fires. Boranka is the largest volunteer action of afforestation because of fires, not only in Croatia but in the whole of Europe.

Boranka cookie is a pine nut biscuit infused with lavender and lemon and the tiniest bite has the power to transmit you to the pine-trees-shaded beaches on the Croatian coast. 

Last year Andrea’s cookbook sold like hot cakes and now the third edition is ready for this Christmas. But Andrea wanted to help Boranka in any way possible. 

So she is donating 20% of all the sales of her Croatian Desserts throughout this October. She is also joining Boranka volunteers to plant trees on the Mosor mountain. 

You too can help with reforestation in Croatia. Get Croatian Desserts and know that 20% will be used to buy new seedlings to reforest burnt down areas in inland Dalmatia. 

Get the Cookbook

If you’re missing the Croatian coast badly, get down to baking Andrea’s Boranka cookie. You’ll find the recipe here. 

Ingredients:

240 g [1 3/4 cups] all-purpose flour
120 g [1/2 cup] butter (cold, cubed)
1 egg yolk
85 g [2/3 cups] powdered sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
50 g [1/3 cup] pine nuts
1 1/2 tsp chopped dry lavender buds
pinch of salt
powdered sugar for dusting

Steps:

1. Toast 2/3 of the pine nuts. Chop them roughly. Keep the rest for decoration.
   
   
2. Preheat oven to 180°C [350°F]. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
   
   
3. Add salt to the flour. Rub the butter in. Add sugar, lavender, lemon zest and chopped pine nuts. Add the egg yolk and lemon juice and bring the dough together. Form it into a disk and chill for 1 hour.
   
   
4. Roll the dough to 0.5 cm thickness. Shape cookies with a cutter. Make wholes in each corner of the tree-shaped cookie with a toothpick. Wedge a pine nut inside.
   
   
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly golden around the edges. Dust each cookie with a bit of powdered sugar.