My grandma's Vanilla Grencle - Grencle alla vaniglia di mia nonna - Vanil Grencle moje bake

I wanted the snow to fall, I wanted it so, so much, that it fall at last. It was quick and very wet, it melted in few hours, but I was so happy watching it falling. And I was at home! I adore the silent atmosphere all around and all the whiteness covering the ground and paralyzing all movements. Our garden was suddenly hiding its colours.
The snow disappeared as these vintage cookies did! Vintage cookies, because the recipe is so, so old. My grandma brought the recipe with her from "Old Yugoslavia" when she and her husband came back to Croatia from Belgrade during the second world war. It seams that I have migrant genes, I think all my family have them! And I have inherited these genes more then any other in my family, but most of all I have inherited the love for innovation and discovery. I like to give new life to good old traditions and experiences. I like to remember good old times too. So I wanted to remember this recipe that my grandma passed to my mum and my mum wrote it down in her notebook full of recipes that I like to read from time to time, because I always find something new in it!
We always call our cookies with their names, never just cookies, every single variety has its unique property and all of them deserve to be called by their names.
Vanilla Grencle are typical Christmas cookies, but are perfect with a cup of tea and it's a pity not to bake them more often. I think every family in ex Yugoslavia has its own recipe for this particular vanilla cookies, all these recipes are similar, but slightly  different, every lady pastry chef like to add the personal "secret" to the recipe that makes it special and family heritage. My mother and I usually use slightly sour jams do contrast plenty of icing sugar that covers the cookies. If you try to do your own cookies, I'm sure you will adjust the recipe too. This is the secret of every family tradition and recipe!

VANILLA GRENCLE(pronounced "Grentzle")

250 gr butter or lard

250 gr granulated sugar

250 gr ground walnuts

3 egg yolks 

1 whole eggs

250 gr all-purpose flour (add more if needed)

For garnish:

plum or sour black cherry jam

200 gr icing sugar with vanilla flavour

Beat in butter and eggs to get creamy structure. Combine all remaining ingredients into the batter to get soft, but smooth dough.

Let the dough rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cover the baking tray with the parchment.

Roll out 4-5mm thick dough and cut small round cookies with the cookie cutter (2 cm big). Arrange cookies on the parchment and bake them about 10 minutes. Cookies should remain light. Let them cool on the parchment for few minutes before removing them from the the parchment.

Once the cookies are cool, spread some jam on top of one cookie and cover it with the second cookie.

Roll each cookie into icing sugar with vanilla flavour.

GRENCLE ALLA VANIGLIA (si pronuncia "Grenzle")

250 gr di burro o strutto

250 gr di zucchero

250 gr di noci grattugiate

3 tuorli d’uovo 

1 uovo intero

250 gr di farina “00” (aggiungere altra farina se servirà)

Per guarnire:

confettura di prugne o amarene

200 gr di zucchero a velo vanigliato

Lavorare il burro con lo zucchero per ottenere la struttura cremosa. Aggiungere tutti gli altri ingredienti e impastare l’impasto morbido e liscio.

Lasciare l’impasto a raffreddarsi 30 minuti nel frigorifero.

Riscaldare il forno a 180°C.

Rivestire la teglia con la carta da forno.

Stendere l’impasto a uno spessore di 4-5mm e con un piccolo tagliabiscotti rotondo ritagliare i biscotti di circa 2cm di diametro. Sistemare i biscotti sulla carta nella teglia e cuocerli per circa 10 minuti. I biscotti devono rimanere chiari. Lasciare raffreddare i biscotti sulla carta prima di spostarli.

Spalmare poca confettura su un lato del biscotto freddo e coprirlo con un secondo biscotto.

Rotolare i biscotti nello zucchero vanigliato e ricoprirli completamente di zucchero.

VANIL GRENCLE

250 gr maslaca ili masti

250 gr šećera

250 gr mljevenih oraha

3 žumanjaka

1 cijelo jaje

250 gr brašna (ako treba dodati više)

Za nadjev:

pekmeza od šljiva ili višanja

200 gr vanil šećera u prahu

Mutiti maslac i šećer u kremu. Dodati sve ostale sastojke i zamijesiti mekano i glatko tijesto.

Ostaviti tijesto u hladnjaku oko 30 minuta da se ohladi.

Zagrijati pećnicu na 180°C.

Prekriti pleh za pečenje masnim papirom.

Razvaljati tijesto debljine 4-5mm i rezati kekse okruglim rezačem promjera oko 2cm. Poslagati kekse na papir u plehu i peći ih oko 10 minuta. Keksi trebaju ostati svjetli. Ostaviti da se keksi ohlade na papiru, pa ih onda skinuti s papira.

Namazati keks s jedne strane s malo pekmeza i na pekmez zalijepiti drugi keks.

Dobro uvaljati kekse u šećera u prahu kako bi bili potpuno ušećereni.