Italian Peach Cookies

Preheat the oven to 320F (150C) making sure the fan is turned off. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Make the cookies. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, egg, milk, butter, vanilla extract, and salt until combined. The cookie dough will be thick. Divide the cookie dough into 18 equal balls. Each ball should weigh about 1.1 oz (30 g) but you can also eyeball this. Roll each ball until perfectly smooth and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Gently press each cookie onto the baking sheet so it sits without rolling away.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies are golden all over with golden brown bottoms (lift one to check). The cookies shouldn't crack but if they crack lightly, you can still use them. Allow the cookies to cool down completely before moving onto the next step.
Carve the cookies. Make sure the cookies are at room temperature before carving, then use a spoon or knife to carve each cookie to make room for the filling. Be gentle as you don't want to break the cookies.
Make the base custard. You'll make just 1 base custard and then divide the custard into vanilla and chocolate custard. Pour the milk into a large saucepan over low heat and heat until hot but not boiling. Once the milk is hot, turn off the heat. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, vigorously whisk together the cornstarch, sugar, and egg yolks until combined and pale in color. Temper the eggs by adding a few tablespoon of the hot milk into the egg mixture as you mix. Repeat this a few times. You want the eggs to slowly come to the temperature of the milk so they won't scramble when you add them into the milk. Finally, pour the egg mixture into the milk, and immediately turn on the heat. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring continuously, until the custard is bubbling and has thickened, then turn off the heat.
Make the vanilla custard. Fold in the vanilla extract into the base custard and transfer half of the vanilla custard into a separate bowl. Cover the vanilla custard with plastic wrap, making sure it touches the custard to keep it from forming a skin. Allow to cool down.
Make the chocolate custard. Add the milk, powdered sugar and cocoa powder to the custard you just transferred. Turn on the heat, return the custard to the stove, and cook until fully combined and thickened again, then turn off the heat. This is your chocolate custard. Cover with plastic wrap making sure the plastic wrap touches the custard to keep it from forming a skin. Allow to cool down.
Fill the cookies. Stuff half of the cookies with vanilla custard and the other half with chocolate custard. Be generous with the filling because that's the "glue" that keeps them together once you sandwich them so you want to make sure the edges have a thin layer of filling slathered on top.
Assemble the Peaches. Combine a vanilla custard cookie with a chocolate custard cookie, sandwich them together and set them aside.
Dip in Alchermes. Dip each assembled Peach in Alchermes for just a few seconds. Be quick but gentle when doing this: the cookies aren't supposed to soak up too much liquor or they will fall apart later on.
Roll in sugar. Immediately roll each soaked peach cookie in sugar, place it onto a serving plate, and set aside.
Chill for at least 3-4 hours or overnight (recommended). The cookies need some time to set, soak up all the flavors and soften up. Top each cookie with a mint leaf right before serving! Enjoy!

Ingredients

For The Cookie Dough

For The Vanilla Custard

For The Chocolate Custard

For Decorating

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition

Italian Peach Cookies

Ingredients 1x2x3x

For The Cookie Dough

For The Vanilla Custard

For The Chocolate Custard

For Decorating

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition

Ingredients