I love all things Romanian. I love the language, the accent, the food, the clothes, the friendly people. I even love the unwarranted parenting advice from the ladies. But, the thing I love most about Romanian culture and church is the coliva. I can’t imagine someone who wouldn’t love this stuff. Romanian coliva is sweet with a pudding like texture, a bit of crunch, and most importantly, it is fast friendly. For you lovers of Greek style koliva, don’t worry, I’ll post a recipe for you too.
The most important ingredient to good Romanian style coliva is something called “skinless wheat.” “What on Earth is skinless wheat?” you ask. Well, as far as I can tell “skinless wheat” is a wheat berry without the bran. It is like white rice or hulless barley. Both of these have the outer skin removed for faster cooking. Unfortunately, removing the bran also removes a good bit of the B vitamin content found in wheat. That is how you make white flour and it is why white flour is fortified at the end of processing.
For those of you lucky enough to live close to Serbian party stores, in or around Detroit, skinless wheat should be easy to find. For the rest of us skinless wheat is elusive. Fortunately, I’ve figured out how to make your own at home. What follows are my notes from an entire day of coliva experimentation. Three batches later -perfection.
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- Wheat bran coming off the berries
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- Wheat bran collecting on the side of bowl
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- “Roughed up” wheat berries
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- Sticky processed wheat berries, ready for the other ingredients
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- Walnut crumbs of perfection
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- ready to decorate
First, the master recipe:
1 1/3 c Whole wheat berries (I recommend soft white)
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1/4 c sugar
2 c Ground walnuts
1/4 c Raisins
Zest of one orange
Zest of one lemon
1 pkg graham crackers
Powdered sugar for decorating
Step 1. Lord bless my work.
Step 2. Skin the wheat as follows:
Put the wheat in the food processor to chop up the bran a little, then rinse the wheat in a bowl and drained off the bran with the water. Be careful, I don’t know if this will wreck your processor or not as wheat berries are hard as nails. (My is still working but yours may be delicate.)
I repeated this a few times until the surface of the berries looked really rough.
Step 3. Place berries in a pot and cover with water about an inch over the top. Add both zests. Bring the berries to a boil the berries then simmer for 90 minutes until they are tender but NOT mushy. It will look like boiled barley.
Cool to room temperature so the starch can start to congeal.
Step 4. Drain off any remaining water and put the wheat back into the food processor for a couple of quick bursts. This will get the starch flowing and the wheat gooping. The berries should be a little chopped up and very sticky.
**Please note that you will NOT get the same pudding like texture from processing regular boiled wheat. I gave it a shot with the first batch of botched coliva and it just spun it around a little but didn’t cut it up or anything.
Step 5. Grind up the walnuts in the food processor. The walnuts should be like rough cracker crumbs or graham cracker crumbs. Watch it closely or you’ll have walnut butter real quick.
Step 6. In a large bowl combine wheat, sugar, walnuts, and raisins. Some people swear by golden raisins. Perhaps, this is just a matter of taste. However, a nun told me to use golden raisins because they are the best and I do whatever nuns tell me to do. You probably should too.
Step 7. Press the coliva into a pretty bowl or platter.
Step 8. Blast the graham crackers in the food processor. Put these on top of the coliva to serve as a base for the powdered sugar. If you do not use the crackers the sugar will soak right in and your coliva will be delicious but ugly.
Step 9. Dust with powdered sugar until the top is pure white. Now decorate with a cross. Make your cross out of Jordan almonds, cocoa, silver nonpareils, chocolate chips, plain almonds, etc.
Step 10. Deliver to church on time. Trust me, it is super embarrassing to approach the offering table during the censing.
This recipe takes a long time. Don’t forget, however, that you are making an offering for the dearly departed and your work is important.
Pofta buna!
Orthodox Fasting Recipes 
This is perfect! I was talking with B at lunch about doing some experiments with wheat this season, and I was not sure what I would need to do to remove the bran (if needed). I am thinking about a naked wheat berry salad of some sort, but I could easily start with coliva.
Where can I buy skinless wheat berries? There are no Serbian stores in Philadelphia. I doubt that I will ever try making skinless wheat. I’m not a cook but I like coliva and I make it for my family memorials. Thanks for any info you can supply.
Walter
Hi Walter,
I sure wish I could help you. I had to make my own because I couldn’t find them anywhere in Arkansas OR the internet. Philadelphia and the surrounding area has a nice size Eastern European community. Maybe try calling around to some ethnic food stores. My second guess is to ask every cook in your church. Again, I wish I had a better answer for you. Let me know if you do find something.
Good luck!
Niki
You might want to try a Greek importing store. We have a few in this area that offers the whole wheat berries, which I use in the Greek tradition. But, the other day when I went to the that store I bought the skinless type to try out .The only thing different to me was the cooking time was faster but everything use I did the same. I also know a few health stores that carry the wheat berries. You can also call your local Orthodox church for information. let me know.
Elizabeth
Thanks for the tip, Elizabeth!
Elizabeth is right, any Middle Eastern market should have this. We Armenians use skinless wheat (aka dzedzadz) to make herisah, an overnight “stew” of poultry (usually) and the berries, cooked without stirring, then beaten and served with browned butter. I just made some yesterday with turkey thighs and it is fantastic.
If I may add the following to the recipe:
1. Skinless wheat berries (romanian: “arpacas”) can be replaced, if not available, with pearled barley. They are softer, but do the job.
2. I use 1 part wheat berries, 3 parts water, 2 parts sugar. I boil the berries with the water and a bit of salt for half an hour, let it cool very slowly (cover the pot with a blanket/ big towel) over night. Heat again in the morning for half an hour, adding the sugar, too. I do not chop the berries, nor is it necessary to drain them – romanian style is pudding like, and not “loose” berries. Let it cool, then mix in ground walnuts, lemon and orange zest, vanilla and rum essence.
Thank you!
Correction to the previous post: I meant to say 2/3 part sugar (not two parts); and forgot to mention amount of walnuts: 1/2 part.
what you have to use for Romanian Coliva is wheat grits and you can find it at Bell’s Market on Bustleton Ave. Philadelphia. I am Romanian and I use to cook coliva many times, and as I said I use Wheat Grits.
I notice that you have vanilla in the recipe, but I don’t see it in the directions. When would you add the vanilla.
I would add when mixing in the cinnamon.