One of the quintessential Croatian pub food varieties, these scones with layers of dough filled with finely chopped pork cracklings are a wonderful basis for beer, lots of beer 🍻

They are not too hard to make yourself (this enables you to have as much cracklings in it as you wish, in contrast to the ones served in most pubs, which often contain only traces of this yummy porky 🐽 snack). They are best in winter ⛄ as then fresh cracklings are produced in Croatian vllages, but you can enjoy them in all other seasons too.

⌚ Preparation 20 minutes + waiting time 90 minutes + baking time 15 minutes

Suitable for: This is not halal nor kosher, not vegetarian nor vegan, not glutene-free, egg-free nor lactose-free. However, it contains no nuts, soy nor shellfish.

Here ist the PDF-recipe, for easier printing or collecting.

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Ingredients (for 8 big or 20 small scones)

Dough: 200 ml milk, 1.5 tsp sugar, 30 g (fresh) yeast, 50 ml sunflower oil, 1.5 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sour cream, ca. 450 g (soft) flour

Filling: ca. 150 g ready pork cracklings (Croatian: čvarci, German: Grieben), 1 tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp black pepper

To coat: 1 egg 🥚 (note: 1 egg sufices for about double the amounts given above)

How to

Warm the milk, but don’t cook it. Dissolve crumbled yeast and sugar in it, cover and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes to slightly froth.

Stir in the salt, oil and sour cream, then about 200 g flour. After you get a homogeneous runny dough, add another 200 g flour and knead well until you get a smooth, non-sticky dough (if needed, add 1-2 tbsp flour more). Cover and leave to rise for 60 minutes in a warm place.

During that time, process the cracklings in a kitchen machine or chop them finely, transfer to a small pot with pepper and butter and heat, stirring gently to get a thick, coarse spread. Remove from heat.

On a floured surface knead the dough, then roll out to a rectangle of about 5 mm thickness. Take half of the filling and evenly spread on top of the dough. Fold left and right to the center, without overlapping. Fold top and bottom to the center, again without overlapping. Flip and press slightly, cover and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Roll out again to rectangle form, cover with remaining crackling-butter mixture. Fold again like in previous step, only now first fold top and bottom, then left and right. Press gently, cover, leave to rest again for 10 minutes.

Roll out to a rectangle of about 1 cm thickness, cut into eights, or more traditionally in circles of about 7-8 cm in diameter (you can use a glass or cup to cut them out). Transfer to a baking tray covered with baking parchment. Beat the egg with the fork and coat the tops of the scones with a thin egg layer.

Bake about 15 minutes in a preheated oven (top and bottom heat, 200 C, medium position). Enjoy warm or cold!

Note. These scones are traditionally cut out in round form, but then you either have some dough leftovers, which you can gently press in scone form and you get a few not so pretty but equally tasty pogačice s čvarcima 😊.