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Orasnice — Serbian walnut crescents with a crisp edge and soft centre
Orasnice are small Serbian walnut cookies whose identity comes from both composition and shape. A compact crescent or horseshoe is made from a mixture dominated by walnuts, then rolled in more chopped walnut before baking. The cookie should not behave like a dry shortbread. Its outer surface sets and toasts, while the centre remains denser and softer.
Egg white is the only significant structural binder in this recipe. Whipping it with sugar creates a meringue strong enough to suspend a large quantity of ground walnuts. That air is not intended to make the cookie light like a pavlova; it simply keeps the nut paste from baking into a heavy, oily lump. The meringue therefore needs to reach a glossy firm peak before the walnuts are folded in.
Walnut texture is deliberately split. The 300 g used in the mixture are ground fine enough to bind with the meringue, while the outer 100 g remain coarse. That difference gives the finished cookie a more rugged surface and a stronger roasted-walnut impression at first bite. Over-processing all the walnuts would release more oil and make the dough harder to shape.
The mixture will be sticky rather than rollable like pastry dough. Short logs are portioned with damp hands, coated in chopped walnuts and curved directly on the lined tray. Uniform thickness matters more than perfect symmetry because the narrow tips of an exaggerated crescent can overbake before the middle is set.
A relatively gentle 160 °C bake controls the final texture. The outside should be dry and lightly golden, but the centre should still yield when the tray comes out. Fifteen minutes of cooling on the hot tray finishes the set. If the cookies are baked until fully firm in the oven, they become hard once cool.