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Delicate shortcrust pastry and creamy caramel butter filling with almonds are combined in the Soviet peach cookies. They are an unusual, sweet eye-catcher on the coffee table. You can easily make the fake peaches at home. They are popular all over the world and the filling varies from country to country. You can find a detailed peach cookie recipe with the exact quantities and step-by-step instructions below.
Unusual sweet eye-catcher from the Soviet era
The peach cookies, along with the sponge slices with butter cream, korzinochki and kartoshka cake, were very popular in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In Russian, they are called “persiki”, which translates as “peaches”.
You could buy them in many Soviet bakeries and grocery stores back then. For children of the Soviet era, they became the taste of their childhood, just like the milk korzhiki, shortbread rings with peanuts and ponchiki.
What are the peach cookies made of?
The Soviet peach cookies are made from shortcrust pastry with sour cream. The filling contains caramelized sweetened condensed milk and butter. An almond is placed in the middle of each cookie to represent the peach stone.
The outside of the cookies are dyed red-yellow and rolled in sugar. I also decorated them with mint leaves.
More ideas for the filling
You can experiment as much as you like with the filling for the peach cookies, similar to the jam oatmeal bars recipe. It just needs to be firm and not runny. You can stir the cut-out cookie scraps into each filling, as I did.
For example, fill the fake peaches with caramelized sweetened condensed milk alone without butter. In this case, however, they taste much sweeter.
Or make the filling with caramelized sweetened condensed milk and mascarpone instead of butter. Simply mix the two ingredients together. If the cream is too runny, chill it briefly before filling the cookies.
You can use hazelnuts, cashews or walnuts instead of almonds.
Natural colorants for peach cookies
To make the cookies look like real peaches, I only used natural colorants, namely carrot and beet juice. Don’t worry, the cookies won’t taste like carrot or beet. This is because they are only briefly dipped in the juices.
You can either make the juices yourself with a juicer or buy them ready-made. It is important that you use pure direct juices without additives, possibly with a little lemon juice.
When soaked in the juices, the peach cookies look rather pale. However, their color becomes brighter and stronger as they dry.
Popular in many countries
The peach cookies were not only popular in the former Soviet Union. They are also known and loved in many other parts of the world, just like the Kurabiye cookies. The filling differs from country to country.
In Bulgaria, the peach cookies are called “praskovki”, which means “peaches”. Here they are often filled with a mixture of ground nuts, jam and cookie crumbs. Bulgarians like to make praskovki at Easter.
In Croatia, “breskvice”, which also means “peaches”, are a popular Christmas pastry. They are filled with nuts, jam, cocoa powder or chocolate, a little rum and cookie crumbs.
Italians also love peach cookies, which are called “pesche dolci” here. They only make them on special occasions, such as weddings, christenings or Christmas. In Italy, the peach cookies are filled with various creams. These can be, for example, a pudding buttercream, similar to that used for the Ruske kape dessert, the frying pan chocolate cake and the crepe cake, a cream cheese filling, such as for the mini Pavlova and the chocolate whoopie pies, or a jam nut filling.
These cookies are
- crumbly,
- creamy,
- tender,
- caramelly,
- heavenly delicious,
- with almonds,
- colorful,
- with a sugar crust,
- big – just like a real peach,
- an unusual eye-catcher on the coffee table,
- easy to make with a certain amount of time,
- ideal for a party,
- a classic of Soviet cuisine,
- popular all over the world with other fillings.
How to make peach cookies: tips and tricks
- The amount of flour specified in the recipe may vary. Only add as much flour to the liquid mixture until you have a very soft, slightly sticky dough.
- Knead the dough only briefly until a homogeneous consistency is achieved and never for too long, so that the cookies later taste crumbly and not tough.
- It is best to chill the dough and the cookies thoroughly. This ensures that the cookies taste very crumbly and retain their shape when baked.
- The baking time stated in the recipe may vary. Do not bake the cookie halves longer than necessary so that they taste tender and not dry. Do a stick test to check if the cookies are done baking. They should have a fairly light color after baking and should not be too brown.
- Make the cavities in the cookies while they are still warm. As soon as they have cooled completely, they will become firm and could break when you scoop them out.
- Caramelized sweetened condensed milk and butter must both be at room temperature when whisking so that they can combine to form a smooth cream. If they have a large temperature difference, the cream may curdle.
- You can find alternative ideas for the filling in the article above.
Peach cookies video recipe
You can find a short video for the peach cookies on my Youtube channel. There you can see exactly how to make them at home. If you don’t want to miss any more videos from me, please subscribe to my channel.
Did you make the peach cookies using this recipe? I look forward to your result, your star rating and your comment below on how they turned out and tasted.
Also try these Soviet sweet recipes:
- Sugar tongues – quick recipe for Soviet puff pastry cookies
- Puff pastry horns with Italian meringue – taste highlight from the Soviet era
- Suvorov cookies – Soviet recipe with the original filling
Peach cookies
Ingredients
for the dough
- 150 g butter room warm
- 100 g sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 100 g sugar
- approx. 400 g flour
- 6 g baking powder
- 1 pinch of ground vanilla bean
- 1 pinch of salt
- flour for the work surface
for the filling
- 180 g caramelized sweetened condensed milk room warm
- 120 g butter room warm
- 12 whole almonds unpeeled
to decorate
- carrot juice
- beet juice
- sugar
- mint leaves
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
- Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt until light and fluffy.
- Add sour cream and softened butter and mix very briefly.
- Mix flour with baking powder, add it in batches to the egg sugar mixture and knead briefly and quickly to form a soft, slightly sticky dough.
- Place the dough in a freezer bag, press it flat and put it in the fridge for 1 hour.
- On a floured work surface, quickly shape the dough into 12 balls (72 g each in my case) and cut each ball in half using a pizza knife or a sharp knife.
- Spread the cookies in the shape of ball halves, cut side down, on a floured cutting board and place them in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- Spread the cookies out again, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with baking paper with plenty of space between them and bake in a preheated oven at 356 °F (180 °C) for approx. 15 minutes.
- Leave the cookies to cool until warm and make a hollow in the flat side of each cookie using a teaspoon or small knife.
- Leave the cookies to cool completely.
- Finely crumble the cut-out cookie scraps.
Preparation of the filling
- Beat softened butter for approx. 5 minutes until it becomes a light and creamy mass.
- Add caramelized sweetened condensed milk and beat to a homogeneous cream.
- Add the fine cookie crumbs and mix.
Preparation of the peach cookies
- Take two matching cookie halves, fill their cavities with the cream and place an almond in the middle of one of the cavities. Spread a thin layer of cream around the edges of the cavities and stick the two cookie halves together. If any excess cream comes out of the sides, remove it with a knife or spoon.
- Chill the sandwich cookies for approx. 30 minutes.
- Then briefly dip one side of each sandwich cookie in carrot juice, then the other side in beet juice and allow the excess juice to drip off briefly.
- Roll the peach cookies in sugar, decorate with mint leaves and chill for approx. 2 hours.
Notes
- The amount of flour specified may vary. Only add as much flour to the liquid mixture until you have a very soft, slightly sticky dough.
- Knead the dough only briefly until a homogeneous consistency is achieved and never for too long, so that the cookies later taste crumbly and not tough.
- It is best to chill the dough and the cookies thoroughly. This ensures that the cookies taste very crumbly and retain their shape when baked.
- The baking time stated may vary. Do not bake the cookie halves longer than necessary so that they taste tender and not dry. Do a stick test to check if the cookies are done baking. They should have a fairly light color after baking and should not be too brown.
- Make the cavities in the cookies while they are still warm. As soon as they have cooled completely, they will become firm and could break when you scoop them out.
- Caramelized sweetened condensed milk and butter must both be at room temperature when whisking so that they can combine to form a smooth cream. If they have a large temperature difference, the cream may curdle.
- You can find alternative ideas for the filling in the article above.
- See the detailed tips and tricks for making the peach cookies at the top of the article.
If you are using Pinterest, you can pin the following picture: