Boží milosti are Czech fried festive cookies from unleavened dough typically served at masopust or Easter.
Masopust (also Ostatky, Končiny or Fašank) are a celebration full of colorful masks, silly games and sweet food. Boží milosti is one of those. The name literally means “God’s mercies” and they are simple small cookies fried in oil. They are very easy to make and making them doesn’t take up much time. You can learn more about this celebration in Fašank, Ostatky or Masopust, the beautiful and unusual Czech Mardi Gras.
Boží milosti are also very typical at Easter’s Fat Thursday when people traditionally eat greasy food like roasted meet, koblihy or boží milosti. This type of cookies is not one of those you will see all year round and even at Easter, you wouldn’t find them in all regions of the country, however, the tradition of making them is still very much alive. In some regions, these cookies might be known also as listy, třísky or hobliny. The typical shapes are rectangles, bows, circles or even blossoms.
A more elaborate alternative are the so called stříhánky or ratolístky. It’s the same dough but it’s wrapped around a thin wooden stick in a form of spiral or cut to create tiny leaves all around the stick and fried this way.
Supplies
- 250 g of all-purpose flour or hladká mouka (see the Czech Flour Guide)
- 50 g of softened butter
- 1 tbsp of powder sugar + more for coating
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp of milk
- 2 tbsp of Czech rum
- pinch of salt
- oil for frying
How to make Boží milosti
Put the softened butter into a bowl and mix it together with 1 tbsp of powder sugar.
Add the rest of the ingredients and knead with your hand until all are well combined. If your dough seems too soft, for example, from the warmth of your hands, cover it in a bowl and let it rest in the fridge for one hour, otherwise you can continue right away.
Roll out the dough thin and cut it into rectangles.
You can make several decorative cuts in each rectangle.
Or you can shape your boží milosti into the traditional bow shapes.
They will fry quite fast, so I recommend you to have all of them ready before you start frying.
Heat up a layer of oil on a pan. You won’t need much oil but still, the boží milosti shouldn’t touch the pan. Fry them over medium heat for a minute or until they are nicely golden and then turn them over and fry them on the other side.
Place them on a napkin that will soak the excess fat.
And coat them with powder sugar.
