My sister has spent most of the past year in Sanski Most, Bosnia volunteering with the Center for Peacebuilding. She was always raving about the food and I finally asked for a dessert recipe. It came in Bosnian units (small coffee cups) and I have never had this dessert before so I just approximated everything as best as I could. I am not sure how authentic it tastes, but it turned out very tasty! You can read more about my sister’s adventures in Bosnia on her blog. Since the beginning of April, she is actually volunteering with an organization in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, but right before she moved she managed to get the center registered on Globalgiving to raise money to continue the youth peace programs. I am very happy that they’ve already raised enough money to support a few kids, and I hope in the next 5 days they will be able to raise the remaining several hundred dollars that will ensure they remain on the globagiving website and reach their final fundraising goal. Now back to the recipe!
Ingredients (makes ~a dozen of giant cookies):
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 100 gr (~7Tb) sweetened shredded coconut chopped (or coconut powder)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 + cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
Preheat oven to 390 F. Whisk the eggs with the sugar. Mix in oil, coconut, vanilla and baking powder. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time. The recipe asked for “little flour”, but I ended up using quite a bit. They ended up a bit soft, so after putting the first batch in the oven, I added a bit more flour to the remaining batter, but in the end it didn’t make a difference to the taste. 
Make logs out of the dough (a few inches long) and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden. Meanwhile, make the syrup by mixing the water and sugar on medium heat until all the sugar dissolves.
Remove humarsice from the oven and soak in the syrup. 
Keep one to enjoy while the rest are soaking 🙂
Wait until the ones soaking cool down and enjoy! These turned out very tasty and I really enjoyed the coconut in them. While the syrup is nice and it’s probably what makes them more authentic, you can feel free to skip this step if you’re watching your sugar intake. I may have to make them for my sister to confirm they taste like their supposed to 😉
the windy kitchen 
It would take a great leap of faith for me to try this one. I am an avid crispy cookie lover.
🙂
if you don’t soak them in the syrup, they will be a little more crispy 🙂
hey, I’m Bosnian… and I’ll tell how to make them properly Bosnian… skip the coconut and and chopped walnuts to the mix… 😀
Thanks for the visit and the tip. I bet they will be delicious with walnuts as well! I did get this recipe from one of my sister’s friends in Bosnia…do people in different regions use different ingredients? I know in Romania each region adds its own twist to some of our traditional recipes and am wondering if it’s similar in Bosnia as well 😉
sorry… ADD chopped walnuts… not and… 😛
im going to try this recipe tonight
have you had these before? let me know how they compare as I’ve never had any of the original ones 😉
I can help u to perfect the recipe. Its a little off and would taste much better if u replaced the oil with butter 🙂 email me and ill fill u in so u can experience what a bosnian one tastes like 🙂
my ex mother in law made them all the time for me.. so yummy. would you mind sending me the recipe too ?
elenaherrera101@yahoo.com
My mom has the original Bosnian recipe measured with the small coffee cups (called fildzan) but it’s hard to transfer it into more recognizable measurements so thank you for this !!! 🙂