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Serbia · Cakes & Desserts

Tufahije

Walnut-Stuffed Poached Apples
Yield
6 stuffed apples; serves 6
Active
40 minutes
Total
3 1/2 hours (including 2 hours chilling)
Difficulty
Easy
Poached apples stuffed with walnuts and topped with whipped cream

The story

Tufahije, whole apples poached in sugar syrup and stuffed with walnuts, came to Bosnia with the Turks, according to the Serbian daily Novosti, and the name comes from tufah, the Arabic word for apple. Danas notes that the dessert is popular across the Balkans, above all in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is made especially in the winter months and for holidays. In Serbia it is also a fasting sweet. Informer presents tufahije as a fasting sweet from a grandmother's recipe notebook, made especially on fasting days: peeled apples poached about five minutes in water with lemon, filled with ground and chopped walnuts, raisins, sugar and biscuit crumbs, and topped with apricot jam instead of cream. The fuller version from Novosti poaches firm, slightly green apples such as Granny Smith in a heavy syrup, fills them with walnuts and raisins, pours the syrup over and finishes each apple with whipped cream. The Wikipedia survey of Serbian cuisine sums the dish up as walnut-stuffed apples stewed in water with sugar. Orthodox Easter falls on May 2 in 2027. Poach and fill the apples a day ahead and keep them chilled in their syrup; leave off the cream on fasting days.

In the Easter edition

Ingredients and method

The full recipe, with US and metric measures and stand-ins for hard-to-find ingredients, is part of the Easter edition. Buy it once and keep the PDF.

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