This gorgeous little creations will wow your friends and make you feel like you are the best baker ever :)...And nobody will guess how easy they are to make! Ok, unless they read it on my blog ... hahaha.. :D
The recipe will give you about 24 halves of peach, which means 12 full peaches.
What you need:
For the Pastry Cream:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 vanilla bean ( you can use instead the zest of a lemon, cut into a long strip)
- 4 large egg yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup flour
For the Dough:
- 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tblsp baking powder
- 3 large egss
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup full fat milk
- 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
- grated zest of one lemon
For Assembling the Peaches:
- 1/2 cup light rum or 6 tblsp Italian maraschino liqueur
- 2 tblsp peach shnapps
- red and yellow food colouring
- 1 cup fine sugar, more if needed
- fresh leaves of clementines or peaches, if in season to decorate
How to make it:
1. First make the pastry cream: In a large pan bring the milk to a boil together with the split vanilla bean ( take the seeds out and put them into the milk as well) or with the strip of the lemon zest. In the meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together until thick and yellow. Add the flour and whisk until incorporated.
2. Take the vanilla pod out of the milk and slowly whisk the egg mixture into the milk. Put the pan back onto the fire and keep it on while mixing until it gets thick. Put the cream aside and let it cool to room temperature covered with a stretch film so it doesn't get a crust.
3. To make the dough: In a large bowl whisk together the flour and baking powder. In another bowl whisk the eggs and add the sugar and whisk until combined. Whisk in milk, melted butter and grated zest of lemon. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix with a fork until the dough becomes smooth and stiff. Let teh dough rest for about 5 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line two oven trays with baking paper and put aside.
6. Using a tablespoon take pieces of the dough and roll between your palms and put the balls on the prepared trays. They should be about the size of a walnut. Leave about 2 cm in between each ball. You should be careful that all balls are sort of uniform in size. Then, when you finished making balls out of the whole dough, flatten the balls slightly with your palm.
7. Transfer the trays to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. It shouldn't brown on top.
8. Assembling the peaches: While the cookies are still warm, take a sharp knife and cut a circle on the bottom ( flat part) of the cookie. Use the tip of the knife to scrape out enough crumbs from inside the cookie to make a small hole.
9. Place rum or maraschino liqueur in a small bowl and add the peach shnapps. Add the red and yellow colouring according to your taste, but try it first on a peach. Don't make a too strong colour from the beggining.
10. Fill the holes of the cookies with the pastry cream and stick the halves together. Lay them on a tray, tucked into one another so they hold each other and they stay together. Be careful not to crack any of the cookies while filling them up.
11. With a pastry brush, brush the peaches with the coloured liqueur all over the sides. If the colour looks too pale, you can add more food colouring, but keep in mind that the colour will intensify slightly over time.
12. After you brush the peaches with the coloured liqueur, roll each peach in the fine sugar.
13. Transfer the peaches to an air-tight container and keep in the fridge over night. They taste better about two days after they are made ;)
14. When serving them, decorate them with a fresh clementine leaf or peach leaf to make them look real...
Enjoy the wows :D
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