Sirnica

Recipe from the book Dalmatian cooking by Dika Marjanović Radica

Ingredients

5 dkg yeast
25 dkg sugar
16 dkg butter (or pork fat)
8 eggs
¼ L milk
zest of 1 orange and lemon
3 drop of rose water 
1 soup spoon maraskino

5 dkg yeast
25 dkg sugar
16 dkg butter (or pork fat)
8 eggs
¼ L milk
zest of 1 orange and lemon
3 drop of rose water 
1 soup spoon maraskino

Preparation

Sieve the flour and make hole in the middle for the yeast. Combine yeast with small quantity of milk, 1 spoon of sugar and flour and let it rise in a warm place for 10 minutes.

Put the yeast into the flour and make dough. Knead it a bit and let it rise covered with kitchen cloth for at least an hour.

While dough is rising mix softened butter with sugar and then add egg yolks one by one, pinch of salt, rose water, maraskino, warm milk and orange and lemon zest.

In the other bowl whip the egg whites (half the number of egg yolks you used). Add this to mixture of butter and sugar and combine it until smooth. Then mix it with dough you made from flour and yeast.

Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic. Form round loaves and let them rise covered with cloth for a 2 or 3 hours.

Once they are double in size cut them with scissors or knife to get shape like three little bulbs or cross.

Before baking paint them with egg yolks and cover with big chunks of sugar cubes. Pieces of sugar should be big so they can’t melt or burn during baking.     

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