Breskvice: Croatian Peach Cookies

Directions

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla sugar, and vanilla extract for about 1 minute on high speed until the mixture is light in color and has thickened. Reduce speed to medium and add in the oil slowly.
• After the oil has been added, mix a few seconds to combine. Then add in the Greek yogurt and salt, mix, and then add in the baking powder. Mix well to combine everything and turn off the mixer. Set the mixture aside.
• Preheat your oven to 300 F / 150 C. Line a baking sheet (or multiple baking sheets) with parchment paper and set aside.
• To the liquid batter, add in the flour, one cup at a time, and stir with a spatula for as long as you’re able to. Then, use your hands to knead the dough until you’ve used up all the flour. The finished product will be a very soft, smooth dough. It should not stick your hands. If it’s sticking, add a little more flour until it no longer sticks.
• Once the dough is ready, use your fingers to break off pieces of the dough and roll it between the palms of your hands to form a smooth ball with no cracks.

  If you want to ensure all of your peaches look identical in size, you will need to weigh each ball of dough. I never skip this step and my peaches always look perfect. I make each ball 10 grams.

• Place all of your rolled balls onto a baking sheet, spacing them out slightly. They will spread a little bit when they bake.
• Once you’ve filled up a baking sheet, press each ball very gently on top, to flatten the top. Very gently!
• Bake at 300F/150 C for 20-30 minutes until the bottoms are lightly browned. The tops should remain light in color. Don’t overbake them.
• When baked, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack or flat surface. Repeat the above steps until you’ve used up all your dough.
• Let the cookies cool until comfortable enough to hold. Then turn the cookie over and use a knife to carve out a small hole in the middle of the cookie over a mixing bowl. Don’t carve out too much, for reference see the photo above. Save all of the cookie crumbs/carved out pieces in the bowl, you will be using them to make the filling.

  Set aside and repeat this process with all remaining cookies, making sure to save the carved out portion of the cookie.

• When all of your cookies have been baked and carved out, prepare the filling.
• Filling
• Using your fingers, break up the cookie crumbs and carved out pieces as much as possible. Then, add in the walnuts, peach jam/preserves, and orange juice as needed. You will use just enough orange juice to make the mixture slightly wet and soft. It should not be liquid. Around 3-4 tablespoons should be enough.

  If you’d like a Nutella version, simply substitute Nutella for the peach jam! It’s even more delicious!!!

• Mix well with a spatula and using a small spoon, fill each peach half with the filling mixture. Then join the 2 halves together to make 1 peach cookie. Wipe off any excess filling coming out of the sides, using the end of a spoon. Set aside.
• Color + Sugar Coating
• Separate the milk into 2 small bowls. To one bowl add in enough drops of yellow food coloring to achieve your desired shade. In the other bowl, add in the red food coloring. The amount you use will depend on the brand of food coloring. Use 1 or 2 cookies to test out the strength of the color. Then add more if needed.

  Note: I use McCormick Food Coloring and have to use 7-10 drops of yellow and around 10-12 drops of red.

• Once you have your colors, gently hold the peach cookie with your pointer finger and thumb. Place it on the surface of the yellow milk and roll it between your fingers so that you only dye the sides of the cookie yellow. Then, dip the top and bottom of the cookie in the red.
• Place the dipped cookie on a paper towel to slightly dry (about 1 minute) and then using your other dry hand, roll the cookie in sugar. Place on serving dish. Use one hand for dipping and one for rolling in sugar.
• Repeat the dipping and sugar coating steps above with all the remaining cookies.