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Ballokume (Albanian Cornmeal Cookies from Elbasan)
Crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth cookies from Elbasan made from fine cornmeal, butter, sugar and eggs beaten together hard and baked until the tops crack, the treat of the Albanian spring festival, Dita e Verës.
Albanian · easy · serves 10
prep 25 min · cook 20 min
~328 cal · 5g protein · 52g carbs · 11g fat · 1g fiber · 25g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Ballokume are the cookies of Elbasan, a city in central Albania, and of Dita e Verës, Summer Day, the festival held every year on 14 March to mark the end of winter. Its roots are pagan and tied to a temple of a mountain nature goddess near Elbasan, and today it is celebrated across the country, with the biggest festivities still in Elbasan. Families wear the verore, a red and white woollen bracelet, and share ballokume with neighbours and friends.
Only four things go into them: butter, sugar, eggs and corn flour. The butter and sugar are beaten until pale, the eggs go in one at a time, and then the cornmeal. Traditionally the dough is worked in a copper bowl and beaten so hard that the men of the house are often called in to help. Some old recipes also add finj, water boiled with wood ash.
A story in Elbasan says the name comes from a fifteenth-century Ottoman ruler who tasted a little corn cake baked on a wood fire and said it was as good as lokum. Baked, the cookies spread a little and crack on top, and inside they are soft and crumbly.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 10
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 250 g icing sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 350 g fine yellow corn flour (finely ground cornmeal), check the label if you need it gluten-free
- a pinch salt
Instructions
- 1Melt the butter and leave it to cool until just warm. Heat the oven to 170C (340F) and line two baking trays with parchment.
- 2Pour the butter into a large bowl, add the icing sugar and beat hard for about 5 minutes, until pale and well combined.✎ Chef’s noteBallokume depend on vigorous beating. In Elbasan the dough is beaten by hand in a copper bowl, often by the strongest arm in the house.
- 3Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each, then add the salt.
- 4Add the corn flour and mix it in with a spoon, folding from the bottom upwards, just until you have a soft, sandy dough.
- 5Roll the dough into balls of about 35 g and set them well apart on the trays, as they spread a little.
- 6Bake for about 20 minutes, until the tops have cracked and the cookies are pale golden. Leave to cool on the trays, as they are fragile while warm.
Elbasan tradition for Dita e Verës.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
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Tirana. Tirana bakes tave kosi, lamb and rice set under a tangy custard of yogurt and egg until it puffs golden. Albanian cooking mixes Ottoman and Mediterranean habits, with byrek pastries, peppers, olive oil, and abundant fresh dairy.
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Albania. Byrek is the everyday food, thin hand-stretched sheets layered with cheese, spinach, meat or pumpkin and baked in a round tray to be cut in wedges. Along the coast the cooking turns Mediterranean, olive oil, tomatoes, grilled fish and lemon, while the mountainous interior leans on lamb, dairy and preserved meat.
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Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Ballokume (Albanian Cornmeal Cookies from Elbasan)?
Crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth cookies from Elbasan made from fine cornmeal, butter, sugar and eggs beaten together hard and baked until the tops crack, the treat of the Albanian spring festival, Dita e Verës.
Where does Ballokume (Albanian Cornmeal Cookies from Elbasan) come from?
Ballokume (Albanian Cornmeal Cookies from Elbasan) is an Albanian dish from Tirana, Albania.
Can Ballokume (Albanian Cornmeal Cookies from Elbasan) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Ballokume (Albanian Cornmeal Cookies from Elbasan) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Ballokume (Albanian Cornmeal Cookies from Elbasan) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Ballokume (Albanian Cornmeal Cookies from Elbasan) take to make?
About 45 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 10.
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