Istrian recipe: KIDANCI

INGREDIENTS:
600g flour
200g sugar (I always use brown sugar)
3 eggs
50ml milk
250g butter
1 vanilla sugar
10g baking powder
100g desiccated coconut
100g sultanas or raisins
juice of a lemon
a few drops (or more if you like to be able to taste it) of rum
a pinch of salt


During a short stay at my farm, I visited Marija Z Morvini, one of my mother’s closest friends. She offered me a thick Turkish coffee and put in front of me a plate of incredibly tasty coconut-raisin cookies that melt in your mouth. We were talking about her ill mother - who died shortly after my visit - and other events in the village and the cookies slowly disappeared. I just couldn’t stop eating them… Of course – I couldn’t leave without the recipe. I still have my original copy - written on a piece of paper torn off a utility bill envelope.

HOW TO MAKE KIDANCI

They are easy to make and very moresh. You basically need to mix all the ingredients together in any order you prefer. Of you can just put all the ingredients exept raisins in a food processor and whiz them around until they form smooth dough and then you manually add raisins.

I usually mix flour with baking powder, sugar and vanilla in a deep bowl, then I make a hole in it and add eggs and mix it slightly using a fork. Now I add softened butter, milk, lemon juice, rum and desiccated coconut and get my hands dirty! At the very end I add raisins.

The word kidanci comes from the Croatian verb kidati, which means “to tear” and this is exactly how these delicious cookies are made. You just tear small pieces of dough from the bowl and roll them a little between your palms and put them on the baking tray. As there is plenty of butter in the dough, there is no need to grease the tray. Bake for approx 15 minutes at 170 C. Let them cool and sprinkle generously with icing sugar.

If you don’t like raisins, try this recipe with chocolate chips or chopped prunes.