Make your Saturday baking just a little more interesting with these Peach Cookies! Not your average cookies, but super delicious! I was planning to name these 'Hungarian Peach Cookies' since they're another favourite childhood dessert. My Mum and I were making these sometimes, but you would mainly find these at weddings, especially in the rural areas. 🍑
I was pretty sure Peach Cookies were Hungarian, as they were always part of my cultural heritage. However, after some research, I found that they are widely known as a traditional Croatian dessert called 'Breskvice'. I tried to find out more about the origin of these cookies in Hungary but without success. Anyway, what counts is that they somehow made their way into Hungary, and we could all enjoy them. 😊
I got the recipe from my sister-in-law (thank you!) and made a few tweaks here and there. For example, I swapped the milk and rum extract in the filling for rum. I think these cookies are tastier with rum. Peach Cookies have a sweet, crumbly 'outer shell' and a moist, rich filling, and they are a joy to look at. Why not try and see it for yourself? It's easier than it seems and totally worth it! 👌🏼
Peach Cookies
PREP TIME: 15min
TOTAL TIME: 2h (including resting)
SERVINGS: 16 cookies
INGREDIENTS
Cookie dough:
- 350g plain flour
- 125g soft butter or margarine
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g icing sugar
- 100ml milk
- 6g baking powder
- pinch of salt
Filling:
- baked cookie dough (see Directions)
- 75g sugar
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 50g ground walnut
- 2 tbsp apricot jam
- 25g soft butter
- 50ml milk - 1 tbsp rum extract
Decoration:
- green and orange food colouring dissolved in water
- granulated sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Beat the butter and the icing sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and whisk until well-combined.
2. Mix in the baking powder, salt, flour and milk until it all comes together into a dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place it in the fridge for 1 hour to rest.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas mark 4/ 350F.
4. Remove the dough from the fridge and form walnut-size balls and place them on a tray lined with parchment. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 min, until firm to touch and slightly coloured (but rather on the pale side).
5. Scoop out the middle of each cookie into a bowl, using a small spoon (or a melon baller if you have one). Do this while the cookies are still warm/hot. They will break and crumble if you are scooping the middle of the cookies once they are cold.
6. Add the sugar, cocoa powder, ground walnut, apricot jam, butter and rum extract to the cookie crumbs and mix it all together. Gradually add the milk until you obtain a smooth, spreadable filling. You might not need all the milk, or might need an extra splash depending on the dryness of the cookie.
7. To make the cookie sandwiches, fill the inside of each cookie shell generously and stick two together to form a peach. Repeat until you have no empty shells left.
8. Brush one side of the peach cookies with green food colouring and the other with the orange one, using a clean brush. Then roll the cookie sandwiches into the granulated sugar to make them look peachy. Traditionally red and orange colours were used, but my mom often used green. This way the peaches look as they are not ripe yet. 😊
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