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Tarta de zapallitosCourgette and cheese tart

In Buenos Aires every rotisería sells tartas by the slice, and at home a tarta de zapallitos is baked on Sunday evening so that a wedge can go into the vianda (packed lunch) for school and work all week. Zapallitos are round green courgettes; ordinary courgettes work just as well. The common mistake is adding the courgette raw, which floods the pastry; sauté it until the liquid has cooked away. Argentine queso rallado and many hard cheeses are made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian hard cheese. Chef's tip: bake the tart on a preheated baking tray so the base crisps before the filling soaks in.

70 min

Argentinian Baking

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LakrorLeek and cheese pie

Lakror comes from the south of Albania, around Korçë, where it was baked in a round copper tray under a saç, a domed iron lid heaped with embers, and eaten for breakfast or carried to the fields. Thin rounds of homemade dough are layered with oil, then filled with leeks, onions and cheese, giving a pie that is crisp at the top and soft inside. At home, a very hot oven stands in for the saç. The common mistake is rolling the dough too thick: each round should be thin enough to see your hand through, or the layers stay doughy. Chef's tip: rest the dough balls for 30 minutes after kneading; relaxed dough rolls out thin without shrinking back.

100 minBalkan Baking

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Postre MassiniCustard sponge with burnt sugar top

Montevideo's birthday cake of choice since the early twentieth century, the Massini is two thin layers of sponge sandwiching a thick filling of whipped cream folded with egg-yolk custard, crowned with a thin glassy crust of torched yolk and sugar. Bakeries across Uruguay sell it on Sundays. Traditional versions sometimes add a sweet fortified wine to the custard; this one is alcohol-free. The custard is cooked to a safe 71 °C. The common mistake is assembling with warm custard, which melts the cream into a puddle. Chef's tip: if you don't have a blowtorch, put the sugared top under a very hot grill for a minute and watch it closely.

80 min

Paraguayan Baking

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Mandi'o chyryryFried cassava with onion and egg

Mandi'o chyryry means 'fried cassava' in Guaraní, and it is what rural Paraguayan families make from yesterday's boiled mandi'o: chunks crushed and fried in a big pan with onion until crisp in places, then scrambled with eggs. It comes out for breakfast with cocido or for a quick supper, and costs next to nothing. Use sweet cassava, the kind sold in supermarkets. The mistake is stirring constantly, which turns it to mush; let the cassava sit and brown. Chef's tip: the best chyryry starts with cold, day-old boiled cassava, which fries crisper than freshly boiled.

45 min

Paraguayan Sides

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ZlevankaBaked cornmeal and buttermilk cake

Zlevanka, from the Slovenian for 'poured', is a farmhouse batter cake from the Prekmurje and Štajerska regions, poured into a tin and baked for breakfast, then cut into squares and eaten with a big cup of milky white coffee. This sweet version is made with cornmeal and buttermilk, which give it a soft, moist, slightly crumbly crumb with a golden crust; some families add fruit on top. The common mistake is overmixing the batter once the flour goes in, which makes it tough; stir only until combined. Chef's tip: soak the cornmeal in the buttermilk for 15 minutes before mixing, so it softens and the cake isn't gritty.

50 minBalkan Baking

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BallokumeCornmeal butter cookies

Every 14 March, Elbasan in central Albania celebrates Dita e Verës, Summer Day, an old spring festival that is now a national holiday, and the whole town smells of ballokume. These pale golden cookies are made from cornmeal, lots of butter, sugar and eggs, beaten until almost fluffy, then baked into little domes that crack on top and melt into sandy, buttery crumbs. Families give plates of them to neighbours and children nibble them alongside the red-and-white spring bracelets called verore; they are lovely with tea or Turkish-style coffee. This version is gluten free, made with fine cornmeal and cornflour, so check both packets carry a gluten-free label. Under-beating is the classic error: the butter and sugar need a full ten minutes until almost white, or the cookies bake dense and greasy. Chef's tip: chill the shaped cookies for 15 minutes before baking so they keep their dome.

45 minBalkan Baking

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Reform tortaWalnut meringue chocolate cake

Belgrade pastry shops have sold reform torta since the early twentieth century, and it is still the cake Serbian families bring out for birthdays, weddings and the slava. Three thin layers of walnut meringue, crisp at the edge and chewy inside, are stacked with a dense chocolate butter cream made with egg yolks cooked over steam until thick. It is very rich, so cut thin slices and serve with strong coffee. The usual slip is beating the butter into a chocolate mixture that is still warm, which melts it and splits the cream; let it cool to room temperature first. Chef's tip: assemble the cake the day before; overnight in the fridge the meringue softens a little and the cake slices cleanly with a hot knife.

150 minBalkan Baking

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PaprenjaciHoney, walnut and pepper biscuits

Paprenjaci have been baked in Zagreb and the villages of northern Croatia for centuries, and today they are on the list of Croatian heritage foods, sold at Christmas fairs and as gifts in pretty tins. The dough is sweetened with honey and spiced with cinnamon, cloves and a surprising amount of black pepper, then pressed into carved wooden moulds so each biscuit carries a flower, bird or heart. They are firm at first, with a slow peppery heat behind the honey, and soften after a few days. Serve them with tea, mulled apple juice or coffee. The usual slip is forgetting to flour the mould, so the dough sticks and the pattern tears; dust it every time. Chef's tip: grind the pepper as finely as you can, almost to a powder, so you get warmth in every bite rather than hard specks.

90 minBalkan Baking

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Stonski kolačPasta, walnut and chocolate cake

Behind the long stone walls of Ston, on the Pelješac peninsula near Dubrovnik in Croatia, bakers make one of the strangest cakes on the Adriatic: a pastry case filled with short pieces of cooked pasta, ground walnuts, chocolate, cinnamon and citrus zest, all bound with eggs and sugar. It is served on feast days and at weddings, cut into dense, fragrant slices where the pasta gives a soft, chewy bite against the nutty filling. Many families add a splash of rum to the filling; this recipe is alcohol-free, and adults can add 2 tbsp of rum with the zest if they like. A common mistake is cutting the cake while warm, when the filling is still too soft to hold; leave it to cool completely. Chef's tip: undercook the pasta by a minute, because it keeps softening in the oven.

120 minBalkan Baking

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SoparnikSwiss chard pie

Between Split and Omiš, in the stony villages of Poljica in Dalmatia, women once baked soparnik on the open hearth, sliding a huge round of thin dough under hot embers and ash. Its filling is nothing but raw Swiss chard, onion and parsley with olive oil, and the finished pie is brushed with garlic and more oil while it is still steaming. It is crisp at the edges, soft and green inside, and was traditionally eaten on fasting days such as Good Friday and Christmas Eve, cut into diamonds and served lukewarm with a glass of water or a plate of olives. A common mistake is salting the chard too early: it weeps water and the bottom turns soggy, so salt only as you spread it. Chef's tip: heat a large baking tray or pizza stone in the hottest possible oven so the base cooks fast, as it would on the hearthstone.

90 minBalkan Baking

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KajmakClotted milk cream

At the Zlatibor and Čačak markets, women sell kajmak from wide tubs, cut in soft ivory folds that taste of cooked milk, butter and a little salt. It is made by slowly heating rich milk, letting it settle in shallow pans and lifting off the thick skin that forms as it cools, then layering those skins with salt. This home version uses pasteurised milk and cream and stays in the fridge throughout; the long-aged, raw-milk kajmak of the villages is not something to copy at home. Spread it on warm lepinja or proja, or stir it into hot potatoes. A common mistake is letting the milk boil: the bubbles tear the skin and you end up with flecks instead of a thick sheet. Chef's tip: keep the skimmed milk left underneath for porridge, proja or pancakes; nothing goes to waste.

1440 minBalkan Basics

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BlitvaSwiss chard and potatoes

Order grilled fish in any konoba along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, from Zadar down to Dubrovnik, and a heap of blitva usually comes with it. Swiss chard and potatoes are boiled together until soft, then crushed roughly with lots of good olive oil and a little garlic, so the potatoes turn creamy and the chard stays silky and green. It is humble, quick and very good, also with grilled vegetables, eggs or a simple bean dish. The usual slip is not draining well enough, which leaves a watery, grey mush; let everything steam dry in the colander for a minute. Chef's tip: use the best olive oil you have and add a final drizzle at the table, as Dalmatians do, so its peppery taste stays bright.

30 minBalkan Sides

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Prekmurska gibanicaLayered poppy seed and apple cake

Prekmurje, the flat north-eastern corner of Slovenia on the Mura river near the Hungarian border, built this towering cake for weddings and harvest feasts, and it is now protected as a traditional speciality. On a shortcrust base sit eight thin layers, four fillings repeated twice: poppy seed, curd cheese, walnut and apple, each separated by thin pastry and soaked with sour cream and melted butter, so every slice shows neat stripes of grey, white, brown and gold. Serve it warm or the next day with coffee; it keeps for 3 days in the fridge and freezes well. Curd cheese (skuta or quark) is usually rennet-free, but check the label. Going heavy on the fillings is the classic trap: each layer should be about 1 cm, or the cake won't bake through and the stripes blur. Chef's tip: make all four fillings the evening before, and assembly the next day takes just 20 minutes.

180 minBalkan Baking

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PispiliCornbread with spinach and cheese

When the spring greens come up in southern Albania, around Korçë and down towards Gjirokastër, households bake pispili in a round tray: a coarse cornmeal batter spread over a thick bed of spinach, leeks, dill and crumbled white cheese, then baked until the top is cracked and golden. Neither bread nor quite a pie, it is cut into diamonds and eaten warm or at room temperature, often with a bowl of yogurt, olives and spring onions for a simple lunch. Albanian white cheese and most feta are made with animal rennet, so check the label or use a vegetarian feta-style cheese. The usual slip is leaving the greens wet: squeeze them hard, or the bottom layer steams into a soggy paste under the cornmeal. Chef's tip: drag a fork across the batter before it goes in the oven and drizzle oil into the grooves; that gives the rough, crackly crust pispili is loved for.

60 minBalkan Baking

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FlijaLayered batter pie

Flija is the dish of long summer afternoons in Kosovo, from the Rugova valley to the villages around Prizren, when friends gather and take turns tending the saç, a domed iron lid heaped with embers. Thin batter is painted onto a round tray in spokes, cooked under the heat, brushed with a mix of sour cream and yogurt, then painted again, until 15 or more layers have built up over a couple of hours. Cut into wedges, it is chewy, buttery and lightly scorched, served with honey, white cheese, pickled peppers or a bowl of yogurt. At home, a very hot oven grill stands in for the saç. The most frequent mistake is crowding the batter: each spoke must leave a finger-wide gap for the next layer to fill, or the pie becomes a thick, gummy pancake. Chef's tip: keep the batter as thin as single cream, and whisk in a spoonful of water whenever it thickens as it stands.

240 minBalkan Baking

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MatevžCrushed beans and potatoes

The karst country of Notranjska, south-west of Ljubljana, with its vanishing lakes and stone villages, has a soft spot for matevž: borlotti beans and potatoes crushed together into a coarse, speckled mash, slicked with oil and crowned with fried onion. It is the classic partner for sauerkraut or sour turnip and, on the farm, for a smoked pork sausage; here it stays vegan with olive oil and comes with a caraway sauerkraut. Expect something creamy, earthy and sweet from the onions, cut by the sharp cabbage. Tinned beans keep it to an hour; for dried, soak 250 g overnight and simmer for an hour first. Blitzing it smooth is the usual slip; matevž should be roughly crushed with a masher, bean skins and all. Chef's tip: save a mugful of the cooking water, because matevž firms up as it stands and a splash brings it back.

60 minBalkan Sides

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VaniliceVanilla jam shortbread cookies

No slava, the family saint's day feast in Serbia, goes by without a plate of vanilice, and every grandmother's tin holds a few hundred at Christmas. Two tiny fluted rounds of tender walnut shortbread are glued together with tart jam, usually apricot or rosehip, then rolled in vanilla sugar until snowy. They crumble at the first bite and turn soft and melting after a day or two in the tin. Many old recipes use lard; this one uses butter, so the biscuits are vegetarian. Where most people go wrong is baking them until golden: vanilice should stay pale, with only the faintest colour on the base, or they turn hard and lose their vanilla scent. Chef's tip: roll them in the sugar while they are still slightly warm from sandwiching, so the coating clings.

90 minBalkan Baking

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KrompirušaPotato filo pie

In Bosnia only the meat pie is called burek; the potato version is krompiruša, and Sarajevo's buregdžinice bake it in great round copper trays, coiled like a snail. Thin pastry is wrapped around raw diced potato and onion seasoned with pepper, rolled into long ropes and coiled into the tin, then baked until the outside shatters and the potato inside turns soft and peppery. It is entirely plant-based when made with oil and shop-bought filo, which usually contains only flour, water and oil. Eat it hot with a glass of cold plain yogurt, or soya yogurt to keep it vegan. Where most people go wrong is cutting the potatoes too early, so they turn grey and watery; prepare them just before rolling. Chef's tip: when it comes out of the oven, sprinkle with a little hot water and cover with a clean tea towel for 10 minutes, which softens the top layers just as Bosnian bakers do.

90 minBalkan Baking

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Pasta frolaQuince tart

Pasta frola came to the River Plate with Italian immigrants (it is a cousin of the crostata), and it is now the tart every Argentine kitchen keeps on the counter for afternoon mate. The crust is short and cakey rather than crisp, scented with lemon zest and vanilla, and the filling is dulce de membrillo melted down into a spreadable jam; dulce de batata is the other classic. Bakeries in Buenos Aires sell it by the square and it keeps for days in a tin, getting better on the second day. The lattice strips should be thin and slightly wider apart than you think, so the dark filling shows through. A common slip is to spread the quince paste straight from the block: it will not spread, it tears the base and it turns leathery in the oven, so loosen it first with a little hot water. Chef's tip: chill the lined tin and the cut strips for 15 minutes before baking, so the lattice keeps its shape instead of slumping into the filling.

70 min

Argentinian Baking

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Papas a la provenzalFries with garlic and parsley

Bodegones, the old-school Buenos Aires canteens with jamón hanging from the ceiling and waiters in white jackets, serve mountains of papas fritas, and the upgrade everyone orders is "a la provenzal": crisp chips tossed while still sizzling in a mix of finely chopped raw garlic and parsley. The heat of the potatoes takes the edge off the garlic, so it turns fragrant rather than fiery, and the parsley stays bright green. They go with milanesas, grilled steak or a plate of fried eggs. Adding the garlic to the frying oil is the error many make: it burns in seconds and turns bitter; it goes on only after frying. This method fries the chips twice for a crunch that lasts; for an oven version, toss the chips with 3 tbsp oil and roast at 220 °C for 35 minutes, turning once, then dress them the same way. Chef's tip: rinse and dry the cut potatoes very well; surface starch and water are what make chips limp.

45 min

Argentinian Sides

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Bizcochitos de grasaSavoury beef fat biscuits

A paper bag of bizcochitos de grasa sits next to the mate gourd in kitchens, offices and roadside service stations across Argentina, from Buenos Aires to the Andes. These little rounds, a couple of bites each, are layered with beef fat, so they flake and crumble, salty and plain enough to eat by the dozen with bitter mate in the afternoon. The fat is rendered beef fat (grasa vacuna), so they are not vegetarian; ask your butcher for dripping or render suet yourself. A dough worked too warm is the mistake that robs them of their layers; the fat melts into it instead of staying in sheets. Chef's tip: chill the dough for 10 minutes between folds whenever it starts to feel greasy, and prick each round right through so it puffs in flakes rather than domes.

60 min

Argentinian Baking

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Pan dulceChristmas fruit bread

No Argentine Christmas Eve table is complete without a pan dulce, set out at midnight with turrón, nuts and a cold cider for the adults. The bread is the River Plate take on Genoese pandolce and Milanese panettone: a tall, buttery yeast dough scented with orange blossom and lemon, packed with candied fruit, raisins and walnuts. The crumb is closer and moister than panettone, and it keeps for a week wrapped in a cloth. Allow a long day, as the dough has a sponge and two rises. Some bakers soak the fruit in rum or sweet wine; here it is soaked in orange juice, so the bread is alcohol-free. People often add the fruit at the start of kneading, which shreds the gluten and gives a heavy, sunken loaf; work it in only once the dough is silky. Chef's tip: bake it in a tall paper mould or a 16 cm tin lined with a collar of baking paper, and turn it upside down onto a rack for the first 20 minutes of cooling so the top does not sink.

295 min

Argentinian Baking

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Tortitas negrasBrown sugar-topped buns

Black cakes, the name means, though only their tops are dark: tortitas negras are flat, round, flaky buns covered with a thick crust of dark brown sugar that melts in the oven and sets crunchy and toffee-like. They are among the cheapest and most popular facturas in Buenos Aires bakeries, eaten from a paper bag at breakfast or as a merienda with mate, and everyone fights over the sugary edges. The dough is a lightly laminated yeast dough, between bread and puff pastry. Bakeries often use lard or margarine; this version uses butter and stays vegetarian. Being stingy with the sugar is the classic misstep: a thin layer just melts into the dough and disappears, so pile it on thickly and press it down. Chef's tip: brush the rounds with water, not egg, before adding the sugar; the water melts the sugar into a crisp, crackling shell.

88 min

Argentinian Baking

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Morrones con huevo a la parrillaGrilled peppers with egg and cheese

While the meat rests on the cooler side of the parrilla, many asadores put halved red peppers cut side up over the coals, let them soften and char, then crack an egg into each one with a piece of cheese and a pinch of oregano. The pepper becomes a little dish: sweet, smoky and juicy, with a just-set egg and molten cheese in the middle. It is one of the classic starters at an Argentine asado, eaten with bread before the steak arrives, and it makes a good vegetarian main for anyone who skips the meat. The mistake is cracking the egg into a raw pepper: the egg overcooks before the pepper softens, so grill the shells first. Cook until the white is completely set. Queso cremoso or mozzarella is usually made with animal rennet; pick a vegetarian one if needed. Chef's tip: cover the peppers with a foil tent or a lid once the egg goes in; the trapped heat sets the top of the egg without burning the base.

30 min

Argentinian Sides

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