Ballokume

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gfine maize flour, sifted
• 300 gunsalted butter, at room temperature
• 400 gcaster sugar
• 4large eggs
• 1 tspbaking powder
• 1 pinchfine salt
• 1 tbsplemon zest, optional

To bake

• butter for the tray
• extra maize flour for dusting

Directions

1. Beat the butter with the sugar in a wide bowl for a full 15 minutes, by hand with a wooden spoon if you can bear it, until it is white, light and doubled in volume. This beating is the whole recipe.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each, until each is fully absorbed and the mixture looks glossy rather than curdled.
3. Fold in the maize flour, baking powder, salt and zest in three additions, working gently so you keep the air you just beat in.
4. The dough should be soft, sandy and just able to hold a ball. If it crumbles apart, work in a tablespoon of warm water.
5. Rest the dough 20 minutes so the maize flour hydrates and stops feeling gritty on the tongue.
6. Roll into balls of about 80 g, set them well apart on a buttered tray and flatten each to a disc 9 cm across and 1.5 cm thick; they spread and crack as they bake.
7. Bake at 160°C (325°F) fan for 30 to 35 minutes, until the edges are pale gold, the tops are crazed with cracks and the centres still give slightly under a fingertip.
8. Cool on the tray for 15 minutes before moving them, or they break. They firm up as they cool and keep two weeks in a tin.

Technique

• Ballokume belongs to Elbasan and to Dita e Verës on 14 March. Traditionally the butter and sugar are beaten in a copper cauldron over a wood fire, which softens the butter to exactly the right point without melting it.
• Maize flour has no gluten, so the texture depends entirely on aerated butter and eggs. Under-beaten butter gives a dense, sandy puck.
• Use fine white maize flour, not coarse polenta and not cornflour. Coarse grain stays gritty and cornflour turns the cookie pasty.

Substitutions

• No fine maize flour: blitz coarse polenta in a spice grinder for 2 minutes and sift out anything that will not pass through.
• A tablespoon of raki or brandy can replace the lemon zest, which is the older Elbasan practice.

Variations

• Some families beat in 2 tablespoons of honey with the sugar for a darker, chewier cookie.
• A smaller domestic version is rolled to 5 cm and baked 20 minutes, sold year round in Elbasan bakeries.

History

Large maize-flour and butter biscuits baked in Elbasan for Dita e Verës, the spring festival held on 14 March.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ballokume?

Ballokume is a dessert from Albania: giant Elbasan cornmeal-butter cookies for Summer Day. Large maize-flour and butter biscuits baked in Elbasan for Dita e Verës, the spring festival held on 14 March.

How long does Ballokume take to make?

Ballokume takes 30 min of preparation and 35 min of cooking. The recipe makes 16 large cookies. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Ballokume?

Yes, within limits. No fine maize flour: blitz coarse polenta in a spice grinder for 2 minutes and sift out anything that will not pass through. A tablespoon of raki or brandy can replace the lemon zest, which is the older Elbasan practice.

What is the most important thing to get right in Ballokume?

Beat the butter with the sugar in a wide bowl for a full 15 minutes, by hand with a wooden spoon if you can bear it, until it is white, light and doubled in volume. This beating is the whole recipe.