Bosnia and Herzegovina is a unique country in the northern part of the Balkan peninsula with a turbulent history where European, Mediterranean, and Oriental cultures meet and blend into a fascinating mixture. One prime example of this is Bosnian cuisine which is a delicious mix of Ottoman, Slavic, and Mediterranean influences. In this article, we’ll focus on Bosnian desserts in particular and show you some of the tastiest sweets the local cuisine has to offer.
But first things first…
About Bosnian Desserts
When we speak about Bosnian desserts, we need to keep in mind that there’s a large variety of different local sweets. Some sweets are the same as other Balkan neighbors, some are local variations of Turkish desserts (Bosnia was a part of the Ottoman empire for close to 4 centuries), and some are of European origin (Bosnia was also a part of the Habsburg Empire). If you want to get introduced to Bosnian desserts on your trip to Bosnia, there are a few good local food tours, we’re always happy to recommend. Here are some of our favorites.
Traditional Bosnian Dinner with Host Family;
Sarajevo walking food tour with Local;
Food tour through Sarajevo’s neighborhood Grbavica with a local;
Sarajevo City Market, Old Town food tasting tour.
With that being said, let’s get to covering some of Bosnia’s most amazing desserts. We divided the desserts into 6 different categories- fruit-based, pastries, cookies, cakes, deep-fried sweets, and others. Let’s dig in…
Fruit-Based Desserts
Bosnian people love using fruits in their desserts and some of their most popular desserts feature fruits as the main ingredient. Here are some of the most popular fruit-based desserts in Bosnia.
Jabukovača
Jabukovača is the Bosnian version of apple pie. It’s made with filo dough, stuffed with chopped apples and walnuts, and topped with vanilla powder and sweet syrup. Oftentimes, jabukovača is topped with sherbet (liquid sugar) before serving. The recipe originates from the capital city of Sarajevo and is even popular in other Balkan countries like Serbia and Croatia.
Orašnica
Orašnica is another popular Bosnian fruit-based dessert that uses walnuts as its main ingredient (oras means walnut). The chopped walnuts (or in some instances, ground walnuts) are mixed with egg white, sugar, and butter and shaped into a crescent or a horseshoe. The batter is prepared first and then the walnuts are added in it gradually. The final result is a finger-licking good crunchy cookie-like dessert that will quickly win you over.
Smokvara
Smokvara is a fig-based dessert that originates from the region of Herzegovina and is also one of the most popular Croatian desserts. The dessert consists of a dough made of sugar, cornflour, wheat, oil, and fig syrup named pekmez, molded into a flat disk shape before baking. After baking and before serving, the sweet is drowned in thick syrup made of pekmez, sugar, and water and is usually consumed alongside a cup of Bosnian coffee.
Slatko (Fig Preserve)
Sweet preserves are a big deal in the Balkans. Back in the days, when winters were even colder than today and world trade wasn’t at the levels it is today, people had to preserve their fruits for the winter to get the proper amounts of required nutrients during the long winters. That’s why different kinds of fruit preserves and kompot are an important part of local cuisine and culture.
Pretty much any fruit can be preserved but the most popular preserved fruit in Bosnia is the fig. Slatko od smokava (fig preserve) is one of the most popular Bosnian desserts. It consists of figs, sugar, and water, preserved for at least a few weeks before serving, and is traditionally served by hosts welcoming their guests for the first time (alongside a cup of Bosnian coffee).
Tufahija
Tufahija is probably the most famous Bosnian dessert (alongside baklava). It’s made with peeled apples cooked in lemon juice and agda (sweet syrup). After cooking, the apple is stuffed with a mixture of chopped walnuts, vanilla sugar, and milk. Before serving, the apple is topped with whipped cream. Tufahija is lighter than most other Bosnian desserts and it’s a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth craving by taking fewer calories than most other desserts.
Pastries
Pastries are the heaviest and sweetest Bosnian desserts that will not only satisfy your sweet tooth craving but also fill your belly. Here are the most popular sweets from this category.
Baklava
Baklava is a layered pastry filled with walnuts, pistachios, almonds, or even chocolate. It’s of Turkish origin but like many other Turkish desserts, it’s very popular among Bosnian Muslims. Traditionally, baklava was served for Eid Mubarak but nowadays, you can get baklava anytime anywhere around Bosnia. Before serving, baklava is usually soaked in sherbet and garnished with lemon/lime slices.
Makovnjača
Makovnjača is a strudel-like pastry filled with fruit marmalade and poppy seeds. It has a soft and juicy texture, and a very nice, delicate flavor. While the pastry is baked, it releases a nice intoxicating aroma that can almost make you taste the pastry through its smell. The pastry can also be made with a paste of minced walnuts, or minced chestnuts instead of marmalade and poppy seeds and is very popular in Central and Eastern Europe.
Enjoying this post? Then you may also like our guide to Albanian food and our list of the best Albanian desserts.
Krempita
Krempita is a tasty puff pastry originating from Austro-Hungary, a monarchy that Bosnia was a part of for a while. The original name of the dessert is cremeschnitte and today, it’s very popular in the Balkans (it’s somewhat similar to Albanian trilece). Krempita consists of custard cream sandwiched between two layers of pastry. The upper layer is sprinkled with icing sugar before serving.
Ružice
Ružice is the most popular Bosnian version of baklava. It’s made with yufka sheets and filled with melted butter and ground walnuts (sometimes, raisins are added too). The dough is rolled and cut into smaller pieces with a shape that resembles roses or rosebuds, hence the name ružice (meaning little roses). After the dessert is baked, the pastry is doused in sherbet (liquid sugar sweetened with lemon juice) and served, usually alongside a cup of coffee or a glass of boza on the side.
Urmašica
Urmašica is another popular Bosnian dessert that originates from the Middle East and was introduced to the region by the Ottoman Turks. It’s made of a dough consisting of milk, sugar, flour, eggs, and oil which is then rolled into small cylinders. Every dough ball is stuffed with pieces of date (in Bosnian- hurma) and walnuts. Usually, a grater is used to create interesting designs on top of every urmašica before frying. Traditionally, the sweet is served after being soaked in agda and with thin lemon slices for garnishing on the side.
Gomboce/Knedle
Gomboce or Knedle is a tasty Bosnian dumpling-like pastry that consists of whole plums topped with sugar and rolled inside a dough made of flour, eggs, and mashed potatoes. The dough is then cut into tiny squares, each of which should have a plum in the middle. The small dumplings are then boiled and later rolled into a mixture of butter, breadcrumbs, and sugar before serving.
Cookies
This list of the best Bosnian desserts couldn’t be complete without some of the tastiest local cookies. Here are some of the most popular ones.
Čupavci
Čupavci is a traditional Balkan dessert made of cube-shaped biscuits soaked in chocolate and topped with coconut powder/flour. I guess it’s not a typical cookie because it’s very gooey and creamy inside unlike most other biscuit-based desserts but regardless of the classification, it’s one of the tastiest local desserts.
Šape
Šape is a tasty Bosnian cookie with the shape of a paw, hence its name – Šape which translates to paws. The cookies are made of a dough of butter, flour, sugar, and ground walnuts. After the batter is done, it’s placed into small tin molds that are shaped like bear paws and baked in the oven. When done, after cooling down, the cookies are sprinkled with powdered sugar and served alongside a cup of tea or coffee.
Breskvice
Breskvice is a dry dessert consisting of crispy, circular biscuits filled with marmalade (most often made of either apricot or plum). It looks a lot like kabak tatlisi but unlike it, this dessert doesn’t use fresh fruits. The cookies are dipped in a mixture of food coloring and sugar and because of their round shape and food coloring, they resemble tiny peaches, hence the name- breskvice, meaning tiny peaches. The cookies are bite-sized and if you’re not careful/don’t have strong willpower, you can easily find yourself eating a dozen at one go.
Gurabije
This delicious biscuit-like sweet originates from the Middle East and was brought to Bosnia by the Ottomans. It’s made of a special dough with oil, sugar, eggs, flour, walnuts, and lemon peel. The dough needs to be rolled into fist-sized discs and 1 sugar cube is to be placed inside each disc. The biscuits are then baked and served once they cool down, usually alongside a cup of coffee or tea.
Ruske Kape
Ruske kape is one of the most popular Balkan desserts. The delicious cookies are somewhat similar to Čupavci in the way that it consists of custard sandwiched between two biscuits. The biscuit on the top is dipped in coconut powder in a way that makes the whole cookie look like a Russian hat. Before serving, the cookie is topped with plenty of chocolate or bajadera glaze.
Vanilice
As you can probably tell from its name, vanilice is a small, tasty vanilla cookie that’s simple to make, easy to eat, and even though it looks very common and blunt, its flavor is much more complex and powerful than just vanilla. The cookies are usually stuffed with chopped walnuts and apricot jam. The cookies likely originate from neighboring Serbia but are also very popular across the Balkans, in countries like Croatia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria (if you want to see more Bulgarian desserts, check out our list).
Cakes
In this section, we’ll cover a few of Bosnia’s most popular cakes, starting with…
Vasina Torta
A true classic among Balkan desserts, Vasina Torta (Vaso’s cake) is a delicious cake that’s usually reserved for special occasions like weddings, birthday celebrations, or other important events. The cake is made with chocolate, grated orange peel, eggs, ground walnuts, sugar, and lemon juice. It’s a beautiful mix of different flavors that don’t overlap or overpower each other and it’s truly one of the tastiest cakes you’ll find in this part of the world.
Šampita
We weren’t sure whether to classify this one as a cake or a pastry but here it goes. Šampita is another dessert of Austro-Hungarian origin that consists of whipped meringue and an egg yolk crust that gives the dessert a very light and airy texture that will make you devour it within a matter of seconds and crave more…
Oblatine
Oblatine is another tasty sweet that isn’t a typical cake. It’s made of layers of flat wafers with different kinds of sweet fillings in between. The filling usually consists of ground biscuits, ground walnuts, and chocolate or marmalade.
Deep-Fried Desserts
If you’re into deep-fried donut-like desserts, there are a few Bosnian desserts you’ll surely enjoy. Here are some of the most popular ones.
Tulumbe
Tulumba is a delicious deep-fried sweet that originates from Turkey and is similar to churros and jalebi. It’s made of batter poured into a pastry bag and squeezed into the hot oil. The sweets are to be fried until they turn golden brown. Once cooled, they’re dipped in sweet agda and served cold when they get a light, bubbly texture.
Uštipci
Uštipci is one of the most popular and versatile snacks in the Balkans. They’re one of the most popular Croatian appetizers and can be eaten as breakfast, as a dessert, or even as a street food snack in between meals. When they’re served as a dessert, uštipci are usually sprinkled with powdered sugar and honey or jam and served while warm because if they are left out for too long, they can become a bit rubbery.
Krofne
Bosnian donuts or krofne is a tasty deep-fried dessert that’s usually filled with jam or marmalade and topped with icing sugar. Bosnian donuts are not glazed and full of sugar like their American counterparts but they’re just as sweet and just as delicious and will pleasantly surprise you even if you’re used to American donuts.
Others
Last but not least, we round up this list of Bosnian desserts with a few desserts that don’t fall into any of the above-mentioned categories.
Bosanski Lokum
Bosanski lokum is the Bosnian version of the famous Turkish delight. This version is bigger than the normal Turkish delight, has a spherical shape and its texture slightly resembles the vanilice cookies. Bosanski lokum is made of butter, flour, vanilla sugar, powdered sugar, and oil. Its texture is crispy and airy and it gets even better as it ages, so it’s completely safe if you eat it after a few days.
Rahat Lokum
Rahat lokum is widely accepted as a staple dessert in Bosnia and is usually accompanied by his best friend- a cup of Turkish coffee. Rahat lokum is much more similar to the original Turkish delight; it’s a jelly-like sweet made of sugar, starch, rosewater, and walnuts. There are many different flavor variations like orange, pistachio, pomegranate, lemon, etc. The main difference between this lokum and the Turkish delight is that this variation is usually topped with coconut powder and has a cylindrical shape.
Kadaif
At a glance, kadaif looks like a pasta dish but it’s a delicious dessert. It’s made of kadaif noodles, topped with butter, agda, and ground walnuts. The noodles are prepared in a baking pan and then covered with a mixture of butter, agda, and walnuts. This dish is meant to be baked for roughly an hour and then sprinkled with more agda and lemon juice before serving.
Ćetenija
Ćetenija is the Bosnian version of Turkish pismaniye; a sweet nest of woven sugar and baked flour. The two ingredients are mixed with water and lemon juice and cooled for a couple of hours before being hand-pulled by at least 5-6 people or more. Because of the difficult method of preparation, the recipe is a dying art so if you’re ever in Bosnia and come across it, you should certainly try Ćetenija.
Sutlijaš
If you’re a fan of rice pudding, you’ll surely love the Bosnian version of it. Sutlijaš is one of the most popular Bosnian desserts. The dish traces its origin back to Ottoman sulac, a dessert popular among Ottoman nobles back in the day. Sutlijaš is a creamy rice pudding with three main ingredients- rice, sugar, and milk. The mixture can also include vanilla essence or rose water and is usually sprinkled with ground cinnamon or grated chocolate before serving.
Palačinke
Lastly, we round up this list of the most popular Bosnian desserts with palačinke; the Balkan version of pancakes. These pancakes trace their origin back to the Greco-Roman era and today, they’re very popular in most of the Balkans, as well as Central and Eastern Europe. Similar to American pancakes, Palačinke is also made of batter but the batter is a bit thinner and hence, the pancakes are thinner too. The Bosnian pancakes are usually filled with chocolate cream, Nutella, or jam, as well as walnuts or pistachios, and are topped with whipped cream before serving.
Did you like our list of the best Bosnian desserts? Do you have any favorites? Do you think there are any other local desserts we should have mentioned but didn’t? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
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