Sweet
Tatlija
A tray of baked semolina dough cut into diamonds and drenched in syrup once it has cooled.
Recipe from Туѓино Јабано
- Prep
- 4 hr 30 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Total
- 5 hr 15 min
- Fasting
- Not suitable
Ingredients 12 ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 200 °C and oil a shallow tin of about 25 cm.
- Put the beer, oil, sugar and salt in a bowl. Stir in the semolina, the walnuts and the baking powder.
- Work in the flour a handful at a time until you have a soft dough that only just holds together. Stop while it is still slack; a stiff dough will not drink the syrup.
- Press the dough out into the tin with oiled hands to a thickness of about 2 cm, then cut it right through into diamonds or squares before it goes anywhere near the oven.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until it is deep gold and dry underneath.
- While it bakes, boil the sugar, water and lemon peel for 8 minutes to a light syrup, then stir in the lemon juice and take it off the heat.
- Let the tatlija cool in its tin until it is no more than warm, then ladle the warm syrup over it slowly, a little at a time, letting each ladleful sink in before the next.
- Leave it several hours, ideally overnight. It is ready when the cut edges are wet through to the base and the top has gone glossy.
If you cannot find it
Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.
- Fine semolina
- Coarse durum semolina given a short blitz in a blender, or fine polenta at a pinch; the crumb comes out a shade grittier.
- Beer
- Sparkling mineral water, the same volume, if you would rather not use alcohol — the dough rises a little less.
