Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Vanilice
Tiny walnut shortbread sandwiches filled with jam and rolled in vanilla sugar, a staple of the Serbian slava table.
Serbian · medium · serves 24
prep 40 min · cook 12 min
~262 cal · 3g protein · 31g carbs · 15g fat · 1g fiber · 18g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Vanilice, little vanillas, are small, delicate sandwich cookies that grace every Serbian celebration table, especially the slava, the family patron-saint feast. Making them in large batches is a fixed part of holiday preparation.
The tender shortbread is enriched with ground walnuts and often a spoon of lard or butter, giving it a melting texture. Two cookies are sandwiched with tart jam, usually apricot or plum, then rolled in vanilla-scented icing sugar. Small, sweet, and fragrant, they disappear from the plate by the handful.
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Make it yours
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 24
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup ground walnuts
1 cup lard (traditional) or softened butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 egg, plus 1 yolk
3/4 cup apricot or plum jam
1 cup vanilla icing sugar, to finish
Instructions
1
Beat the lard (or butter) with the icing sugar, vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt until pale, then beat in the egg and yolk with the lemon zest and juice, stir through the ground walnuts, and work in the flour until it just comes together.
✎ Chef’s note
Lard is the traditional fat and gives the shortest, most melting texture; butter is the modern substitute. Lemon zest and juice are not optional either, and they are what stops the biscuits tasting merely sweet. Stop working the dough the moment it is smooth: knead it and the gluten develops and they bake hard instead of short.
2
Wrap the dough and chill it at least half an hour.
3
Roll thin and cut into small rounds, then bake at 350F (180C) until just pale gold, about 10 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep them pale. These cookies should melt in the mouth, so pull them before they brown or they turn hard.
4
Let them cool completely on the tray, then sandwich pairs with a very little apricot jam or plum magiun and leave them an hour to settle.
✎ Chef’s note
Cool first, and use only a smear. Filled warm they slide apart, and too much jam soaks the biscuit; the hour of settling is what stops the halves parting when you roll them.
5
Roll the settled sandwiches in vanilla icing sugar and store them in a tin.
✎ Chef’s note
They improve with keeping. Three or four days in a tin and they soften into the jam and taste noticeably better than on the day, which is why Balkan households make them well ahead of a slava or Christmas.
Serbian slava tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Šumadija (Belgrade). Sarma is not Serbian in origin. The name is the Turkish word for wrapping, the dish came in with the Ottomans, and Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Romania all make their own. What is local is the leaf: whole cabbage heads soured in barrels through the autumn rather than blanched fresh.
🗺️
Serbia. Ajvar is made once a year, not weekly. Red peppers are roasted in quantity in the autumn, peeled while hot, minced and cooked down slowly with oil until it darkens, then jarred for the winter, and households compare batches. Rakija, distilled from plums or other fruit, is poured before the food rather than after it.
🌍
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.
More from Serbia
Pasulj (Serbian Bean Stew)Slow-cooked white beans with smoked pork, onion and paprika, finished with a fried-onion and paprika roux (zaprska) that gives the stew its deep colour and flavour.
Sarma (Sour Cabbage Rolls)Sour-cabbage leaves rolled around spiced meat and rice, braised low over smoked ribs, the dish that anchors every Serbian slava.
ProjaA crumbly Serbian cornbread studded with white cheese, baked until golden and eaten with kajmak.
Browse all Serbia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Mould or tin.
Storing it: Best made to order. Prep the fillings ahead and assemble just before eating so nothing turns soggy.
Make it a Serbia meal
PljeskavicaDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Vanilice?
Tiny walnut shortbread sandwiches filled with jam and rolled in vanilla sugar, a staple of the Serbian slava table.
Where does Vanilice come from?
Vanilice is a Serbian dish from Šumadija (Belgrade), Serbia.
Can Vanilice be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Vanilice recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Vanilice 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 Vanilice take to make?
About 52 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 12 minutes cooking), serving 24.
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