Italian Peach Cookies – Pesche Dolcie
In one of the old La Cucina de Italiana magazines I found a recipe for Pecshe Aurora. The recipe was very short and didn’t have any pictures, so I start researching, One thing led to another and I found this recipe for Pecshe Dolci or Pecshe All’Alchermes. These are little cookies sandwiched together in a shape of a peach, filled with pastry cream, dunked in the Alchermes liqueur and coated with sugar.
For those who adore classic European pastries like Pesche Dolci, the charming Italian peach cookies, another refined treat worth trying is the French Frangipane Pear Tart (Tarte Bourdaloue). Though different in form, both desserts showcase an irresistible balance of texture and sweetness, making them wonderful additions to any dessert spread.
Ingredients
Batter
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 80 g -butter room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 2/3 cup flour
- ~4 tbsp. milk
- 1 tbsp. oil
Pastry cream /Custard
- 2 cups milk
- orange zest
- vanilla
- 4 egg yolks
- 4 tbsp. sugar
- 4 tbsp. corn flour
Garnish
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup sugar
- yellow and red natural food coloring
- 12 Mint leaves
Instructions
- Cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Warm the milk until scalding but not boiling.
- Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until well combined, add the corn four, and mix well.
- Add hot milk, 1/4 cup at a time, and temper the egg mixture and keep whisking. Strain the liquid to get rid of any lumps into a heavy bottom saucepan.
- Cook the custard mixture on low medium heat. Continuously stir it with the wooden spoon for 3-5 minutes. As the custard starts thickening, lower the heat and keep stirring and scraping until you see the first boiling bubble.
- Pour the pastry cream into a glass bowl and place a plastic wrap immediately on the custard surface to prevent a skin from forming. Place into the refrigerator to cool it down.
- Divide the orange juice into two separate bowls. Dilute a few drops of yellow color to one and red dye to the other half of orange juice.
- Place the sugar in another shallow bowl
- Take a cookie, dunk it into a yellow juice for a few seconds, rotate and place into the red juice. Roll the cookie in the sugar until well coated. Continue the same steps with the whole batch.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
- With a paring knife make a little incision and insert the mint leaf.
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