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Eastern European

Ballokume

The famous cornmeal cookies of Elbasan, beaten by hand and baked for Dita e Verës, Albania's spring festival. Butter, sugar and egg yolk are worked to a pale cream before fine maize flour goes in, giving a crisp, cracked crust and a sandy, buttery crumb.

50 min25 prep · 25 cookEasy1087 kcalper serving
Ballokume

Method

  1. Put 40 g of very soft unsalted butter in a wide bowl with 75 g of caster sugar and beat with a wooden spoon, always in the same direction, for a full 10 minutes. The mixture should turn almost white and fluffy and the sugar should no longer feel gritty on the spoon — this long beating is what gives ballokume their texture, and traditionally it is done by hand in a copper pot.
  2. Add 1 egg yolk and a pinch of salt and beat for another 2-3 minutes until the cream is smooth, glossy and pale yellow.
  3. In a teaspoon, dissolve 0.25 tsp of bicarbonate of soda in 0.5 tsp of lemon juice; it will fizz. Stir it straight into the butter cream while it is still foaming.

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Per serving

1087kcal
41gprotein
111gcarbs
58gfat
10gfibre

Computed from the ingredients against a food database, not estimated. The full nutrient table is in the app.

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