VANILICI - TRADITIONAL BALKAN COOKIES

My grandma used to prepare vanilici (also known as gurabii) this way except she didn't use butter, but lard only. These definitely bring back childhood memories and the smell of warm cozy home. We usually prepare vanilici around Christmas, though it's not a rule, you can prepare these mouth melting cookies any time of the year.


Ingredients:

• 100 g of sugar
• 1 egg
• 125 g butter
• 125 g of lard
• 1 bag vanilla sugar (10 g)
• 200 ml of yogurt
• 600 g flour
• 1 bag of baking powder (10 g)
• 100 g of chopped roasted almonds (unsalted)
• powdered sugar for sprinkling

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, mix well the sugar, vanilla sugar and egg.
2. Then add yogurt and softened butter and lard. Mix well and add flour and baking powder.
3. Add the flour slowly, don't add it all at once. You should get a dough that won't be too soft, nor too hard. So, from this amount of 600 g, you may need something less or more flour, it depends on the flour.
4. Add chopped almonds and mix well.
5. Open a crust with a thickness of up to 2 cm and using molds take out forms and place them in a baking tray coated with a baking paper.
6. Bake at 180 C degrees for about half an hour or less.
7. After baking, rub them in powdered sugar.