Breskvice (Peach Shaped Cookies)

Breskvice (or little peaches in literal translation) are cookies without which no celebration in former Yugoslavia could be imagined. That tradition has persisted in modern day Slovenia. Children especially love breskvice because of their beautiful appearance and bright colors. Luckily, they taste as good as they look!

Recipe

Dough

• 500 g flour

• 2 eggs

• 175 g powdered sugar

• 180 g butter

• 100 ml heavy cream

• 16 g baking powder (1 sachet)

• 8 g vanilla sugar (1 sachet) (can be substituted with 1/2 tsp vanilla essence)

Filling

• 200 g ground walnuts

• 240 g apricot jam

• 15 g vanilla sugar (2 sachets)

• 40 g sugar

• 4 tbsp spiced rum

• 140 g cookie crumbs

• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

• 200 ml milk

Decoration

• yellow, orange and red food coloring

• granulated sugar

Instructions:

Dough

1. Beat sugar, vanilla sugar, and eggs with a mixer until fluffy. Mix in melted butter and heavy cream until you get a smooth uniform mixture.

2. Mix flour with baking powder.

3. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and and knead it until you get a smooth dough.

4. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and put into the fridge for 1 hour.

Divide the dough into pieces with each weighing about 10g.

Cookies are the size of small walnuts.

Making breskvice shells

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (360 F).

2. From the dough shape round balls that weigh around 10 g each. They will be the size of small walnuts.

3. Bake for about 15 minutes (the exact time will depend on the oven). The cookies should be bright in color, not browned.

4. Leave the shells to cool slightly. While they are still warm carve out a hole from each cookie with a sharp knife. Keep the cookie crumbs as they are used to prepare the filling.

Baked breskvice shells.

We carve out a hole in each shell.

The crumbs are used for the filling.

Filling

1. Mix all the ingredients for the filling. If it is runny, add more cookie crumbs, if it is too thick, add a little bit of milk. How it is depends on the jam used.

Breskvice shells

Filling the shells with the filling.

Breskvice shells with a filling.

Making breskvice

1. Add a dollop of the filling to one shell. Top it with another shell to create a sandwich. Repeat with remaining shells and the filling.

2. Leave in the fridge for about an hour to let the filling cool down and thicken.

3. Pour some water into two containers; add the yellow or orange food coloring to one bowl and the red food coloring to the other (if you want more intense colors, add more food coloring, if gentler, add less).
4. Dip the cookies sideways into the yellow color and then dip the top and the bottom into the red color. You have to be fast so that the cookies don't absord too much water. If you have trouble with it, you can also use a pastry brush. Put each cookie on a paper towel after the dipping.
5. Once the cookies aren't dripping anymore, roll them in granulated sugar. Breskvice or little peaches are ready to be enjoyed!