How To Make Croatian Christmas Cookies – Two Ways
We are officially into the Christmas season. Advent festivities have kicked off in Croatia with the biggest celebration happening in Zagreb. One of the things I love about Christmas is all the Christmas cookies. Today’s Croatian recipe is a bonus – it’s a two-for-one.
Two of my favorite Croatian Christmas cookies. Like all other festivities in our house, during the lead up to Christmas the cake Mafia, lead by my mother, get their heads together and produce some spectacular Croatian cookies and other treats. We hope you like them.

Christmas Cookies Recipe (Two Ways Jam & Coconut)
One of the things I love about Christmas is all the Christmas cookies. Today's Croatian recipe is a bonus - it's a two-for-one.
Ingredients
Jam cookies
- 500 g plain flour (3 1/2 cups)
- 300 g cubed butter (20 Tbls.)
- 5 Tbls. cream
- 4 egg yolks
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 lemon juiced & the rind (no pith)
- 200 g jam (2/3 cups) of your choice - we love plum!
- Cookie-cutter. We like to use a star cutter with and without a center hole
Coconut Ball
- 200 g of powdered milk (1 1/2 cups)
- 1 cup of sugar (you can use less if you wish)
- 2 Tbls. vanilla extract
- 120 ml water (1/2 cup)
- 200 desiccated coconut (always use fine desiccated coconut so that it's easier to roll)
- 125 g butter (9 Tbls.)
- 100 g skinned & toasted hazelnuts (2/3 cup)
Instructions
Jam Cookies
- Rub the flour and butter in a large bowl with your fingers
- Mix in the cream, egg yolks, salt and lemon juice & lemon rind with your hands until it turns into a pastry ball. Let it rest for 1 hour
- Warm the oven at 180°C. Prepare a baking tray lined with baking paper
- Roll the pastry out to a thickness of 3-4mm
- With cookie cutters cut out the shape of your choice. Remember to make an even number of cookies with and without holes
- Bake for about ten mins - or until light brown. Repeat until all the cookies are baked and allow them to cool
- Spoon the jam onto the cookies without holes - you can also use a piping bag to make the jam application easier. Add the second cookie on top - if needed add a little more jam to the center
- Finally, arrange the cookies on a plate and sprinkle them with powdered sugar or you could do as Christine - a reader suggested and brush the top with egg white, and dip them in ground walnuts, instead of the powdered sugar. Either way - dobar tek.
Coconut Balls
- Warm the water with butter and sugar in a medium-size bowl
- When it comes to a boil, simmer for another 5 minutes and set aside to cool slightly
- Add to the bowl vanilla, powdered milk and half of the desiccated coconut, stir through and pop in the fridge to cool - while you are waiting for it to cool
- Once cooled, roll the mixture into small balls - adding a skinned hazelnut into the center of each coconut ball
- Roll each of the balls into more desiccated coconut, place onto a decor
How do you make your Croatian Christmas cookies? We’d love to add others to this list – let us know below.
More Tasty Croatian Recipes
- Find The Main Croatian Recipies Menu Here
- Sarma Recipe {Stuffed Cabbage Rolls}
- Meat and Cheese Burek
- Stuffed Peppers {Punjene Paprike}
- Klipići {rolls}
- Under the bell {Ispod čripnje}
- Pasticada Recipe
- Sinjski Arambaši {Sinj Cabbage Rolls}
- Trogirski Rafioli {Filled Cookies}
- Paprenjaci (Black Pepper Cookies)
Making me hungry! The jam cookies look delicious. I often see them in shops here in NZ and did not realise how simple it would be to make my own.
yes, yes, you just need time – that is what we all really need this Xmas :D
About how many cookies does one batch make? I’m planning to try this recipe for a cookie exchange, and I need quite a few. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipes!
I have a general question. In many (if not most) of the Croatian cookie recipes I find on the internet, the recipe calls for “vanilla sugar”. What is that equivalent to in the United States?
Just buy the real thing, as I am not sure what the subs are:
Put a vanilla bean into a container holding granulated sugar. After several weeks the sugar will have a vanilla flavor to it. You can use a vanilla bean in which you have already stripped out the seeds or one that is completely whole.
Its called vanilla sugar in English too. you can find it in any shop rite or other grocery store in the baking section.