Bosnian syrup-soaked biscuits (Hurmašice)

1. Make the syrup first so it can cool: boil 500 g of sugar with 500 ml of water and the lemon juice for 10 minutes, then cool completely.

2. Cream the soft butter with 50 g of sugar and the vanilla sugar, add the eggs, then the flour mixed with the baking powder, and knead into a soft dough.

3. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of dough, shape into elongated, date-shaped logs (hurma = date) and press them onto the coarse side of a grater to give them a pattern.

4. Place on a lined baking tray and bake at 180 °C for 20-25 minutes until golden.

5. Pack the hot biscuits tightly side by side in a tin and pour over the cold syrup (hot biscuits + cold syrup – that way they soak it up evenly).

6. Leave for at least 4 hours (ideally overnight) until they've absorbed all the syrup; serve at room temperature.

Tip: Hurmašice are the sweet of the Bajram table in Bosnia – the most popular after baklava and tufahije. The characteristic ribbed pattern was once pressed in with a special wooden 'hurmašica board'; the grater is the home version.