Nosh: Croatian Breskvice -- Jammy Peach Cookies

HOLY PEACH MOTHER OF ALL COOKIE GOODNESS!You know when you read about some recipe in a magazine and think, oh my word, what an interesting thing! And then for the life of you, you can't remember what the name was of the thing you read, until--just a few days later, and by a few I mean maybe two--your professional baker friend posts a picture of her very own version of the thing you were just reading about? And out of the goodness of her heart sends you her very own recipe?So. All that happened.I forget where I first read about breskvice (BRESK-vee-tsye), the traditional Croatian cookie that looks like a boozy ersatz peach, but I was immediately smitten by the idea. Puffy, pretty, at first glance they totally resemble peaches (especially when they're really glammed up with a clove "stem" and mint leaf...uh..."leaf") but then when you bite into them...they still taste like peaches! Schnappsy peaches. With rum. Which is, basically, winning all around. The recipe I used was provided to me (with permission given to blog) by the equally insanely lovely and talented Diane of Cake Diane Custom Cake Studio near Dallas, and Texas people, what are you waiting for? Go make this woman a cake star.Breskvice--not gonna lie--are kind of time consuming. Even more time-consuming: they may need to sit and dry for a day or two, so make them ahead of time. They're occasion desserts, served at events like weddings and birthdays and holidays, where you want to let the recipients know they're worth the effort. And you know? They really are worth the effort. Here's the full recipe in .pdf format (which you'll need the Adobe Acrobat reader to see, and if you don't have this on your computer by now go here for the free download, and seriously? Welcome to the year 1996). First we'll talk about how to make the cookies. You'll need:

• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp peach liqueur
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 350°, and line at least two (I used three) baking sheets with baker's parchment or a silicone baking mat. Bust out your handy-dandy stand mixer (or a hand mixer, but once you add the flour prepare for an upper-body workout) and put eggs and sugar into the mixing bowl. Beat at a reasonably medium-working-it speed for about three minutes; your objective is to incorporate air into the eggs to build a fluffy, puffy cookie. Once the eggs and sugar look airy and have turned pale yellow, stream the vegetable oil in to incorporate, then mix that all together until it's creamy.While the eggs are aerating and mixing and creaming with the oil, combine flour, salt and baking powder in another bowl. Yes, six cups of flour. Yes, it's a lot of cookie. But you know...go big or go home. You don't have to sift the flour but you should whisk your dry ingredients together so they're well combined. Keep them off to the side for a minute.  Add milk, schnapps and vanilla to the eggs and give that a minute to combine. Then add your dry ingredient mix.REMEMBER! If you keep your stand mixer running while you add the flour, drop the speed, and only add a little bit of flour at a time. Otherwise physics will go to work and the momentum will throw the flour back out of the bowl and all over you and your countertops. Incorporate the flour using your mixer for as long as feasibly possible, but at some point you'll probably have to finish the mix by hand. My tell-tale signs that I need to make the mix-switch are when the mixer's blades begin pushing the dough to the top of the bowl and adding more would create dough spillage, and also when I smell the motor of my mixer start to burn (seriously, I need a new stand mixer). When you're finished, you will find yourself holding a bowl of the stickiest, thickest dough you've ever faced in your life.The recipe advises you to lightly coat your hands in oil before rolling these into balls and putting them on your parchment-lined baking sheets. That will work if you don't mind having your hands covered in sticky oil. It didn't work for me. I quickly realized I needed another plan; I took two spoons and rolled the dough between them like they're quenelles. Here's George hand-modeling it for you.The tops of the cookies are uneven, but that's OK. Just take a small spatula or knife, dip that in some oil, and smooth out the tops of the cookies.And then? Bake! They should take 15-20 (ish) minutes total, so check them after 8 minutes or so and rotate the pans. They should be nice and puffy on top, and lightly golden on the bottom.Set aside to cool.While the cookies are cooling, you can start to assemble the filling. For that you'll need:

• 1-1/2 cups ground (not chopped) walnuts
• 2 tsp cocoa
• 2 tsp dark rum
• 2 tsp peach liqueur
• 12-oz jar peach or apricot jam*
• 1-2 tablespoons milk
• reserved cookie crumbs

Grind walnuts in a food processor until they're small crumbly walnut bits, but don't grind them into a fine meal. You still want some nubbly texture from them. Set aside.Combine cocoa, dark rum, peach schnapps, and jam. *Here is where I deviate wildly from the printed recipe. The first time I made this I followed the recipe to a T and thought the filling was a bit too soupy, plus I had a ton of it left over that I had no use for. The second time I made them, I used a 12-oz jar of jam (as noted above), and pulled ½ cup of the jam to use as "glue" between the cookies, after it was mixed with the liquors and cocoa. The resulting final filling held together more to my liking and was exactly as much as I needed. Play around with the recipe, see what you like best. It's your kitchen!Anyway. Back to it.Dig out a peach-pit sized hole in the bottom of your cookie, being careful not to poke through the outside. Reserve the crumbs.Reserve ½ cup jam mixture, if you're doing this my way, and fold in walnuts and cookie middles. If you're following the printed recipe, take the entire jam mixture and fold in walnuts and cookie middles. You'll end up with a setup that looks a little like this:Fill all the cookie middles, then coat one half of your cookie sandwich with jam-glue.And then sandwich the halves together. Do this again and again until you have row after row of jam-filled sandwich sugar cookies. And when you think it can't possibly get any better?Hold on.Take two utility bowls and add some peach schnapps to each of them (I'd start with ½ cup in each bowl, and work from there).  Add a few drops of red food coloring to one bowl, and a few drops of yellow to the other. In a third bowl (one large enough to roll the sandwich cookies in), add a pile of super-fine (a/k/a caster) sugar. Have a large roll of paper towels nearby. Take a cookie and dip it in the yellow dye, blot with paper towels to dry. Then dip the other sort of side/third/ish in the red dye, and blot again.You're supposed to be imitating the look of a peach, so be creative and allow for color gradations and the nice round red butt of a ripe peach. Once they're blotted dry, roll them in caster sugar to create "peach fuzz" and place them on your cooling rack to dry.The trickiest part to this recipe is not letting them get too soggy in the coloring process, but the good news is, they'll dry. And BONUS: they even taste better after sitting for a few days, so if you do get the soggies, put them on a cooling rack, loosely covered with wax paper, in your fridge. In a day or two all will be well, and you'll have this:You can go all out and put in a clove "stem" and mint leaf "leaf", but you're not eating them so...why bother?  And yes, once they're completely dry and ready to eat, you can also freeze any leftovers you might have. I know, I've tried it. Wrap each one in plastic and then store them in a plastic bag for extra protection, in the freezer. Just give them a couple of hours to thaw once you take them out.When you cut the cookie in half, the walnut filling will look sort of like a peach pit. They're unbearably cute and delicious. While they are outstanding all on their own, I have found that the best way to enjoy them is with friends, after dinner, over a robust and hearty conversation and a nicely chilled bottle of sparkling dry rosé.Enjoy!  Happy eating!