These Italian peach-shaped cookies are traditionally made for every celebration in Italy! Pesche con Crema – or Tender Custard-Filled Italian Peach Cookies are worth the effort and you’ll be so glad you tired them!

Sometimes, getting older feels… unfair.

You roll out of bed and something creaks.
Your arm is asleep from sleeping on it funny.
Your feet ache before you’ve even stood up.
Your eyes are puffy, your back is stiff, and your skin feels like it’s doing its best impression of parchment paper.

And I’m only 51.
What fresh chaos awaits at 60, 70, or 80?

But here’s the good part of getting older. Wisdom. The kind you only earn by living a real life, making real mistakes, and developing the wonderfully wobbly arm jiggle that flaps enthusiastically every time you wave at the neighbour.

We also get seasoned at the things we repeat over a lifetime. You know the 10,000-hour rule? The idea that once you’ve done something for 10,000 hours, you become a master? Well, most women of my mother’s and grandmother’s generation hit 10,000 hours in the kitchen before today’s bakers finished elementary school. That’s why their recipes have lines like “add enough flour” or “cook until it looks right.”

They didn’t need measurements. They felt the food.

One of those women was my aunt. A master baker without ever calling herself one. Last year, after her husband of nearly 60 years passed away, she seemed lost. So my cousins and I decided to lure her back into the kitchen.

We showed up one morning, and there she was: dressed beautifully, a scarf knotted around her neck, standing tall and ready to bake. It was as though she’d been waiting for this… a reminder of who she had always been.

When we finished, she pulled me aside and whispered, “You’ll come back again, won’t you? We’ll make something else.”

So we did.
And that day, she taught us how to make pesche — traditional Italian peach-shaped cookies filled with custard or ricotta, dipped in liqueur, and rolled in sugar. They’re the kind of cookie you find at every baptism, communion, and celebration in an Italian household. A cookie that’s as beautiful as it is nostalgic.

These were her original notes (which she immediately began editing as we baked — because grandmothers always know better than their own handwriting):

“I know it says that, but I always change it to this…”
Classic.

The ones she made were bigger and fluffier than the bakery versions, almost like giant whoopie pies. She scooped out the centres, dipped them in coloured liqueur, rolled them in sugar, and turned them into the softest, sweetest little peaches.

Fast forward a year.
I met the sweetest woman, Jenny from Fables and Focaccia, and learned that she also makes incredible pesche. We compared recipes (hers slightly different, but not dramatically so), and of course, we scheduled a baking day like two people who definitely do not already have enough to do in their daily lives.

We scooped, baked, filled, dipped, and laughed all afternoon. It felt like a continuation of that day with my aunt. Proof that recipes carry stories with them, and when we bake together, we honour the generations before us.

These cookies are a labour of love — but absolutely worth it. Soft on the outside, creamy in the middle, rolled in sparkling sugar, and perfect with a cup of hot espresso.

Let’s make them together.

What Are Pesche Con Crema?

Pesche con crema (also known simply as pesche or “peach cookies”) are classic Italian celebration cookies made from soft cake-like rounds that are hollowed out, filled with custard, dipped in liqueur for colour, and rolled in sugar until they resemble miniature peaches.

They’re often served at:

• Baptisms
• Communions
• Bridal showers
• Holiday gatherings
• Any Italian event where someone’s nonna insists you need to take home two dozen “for later”

You’ll find variations filled with:

• Thick pastry cream
• Jam
• Sweetened ricotta
• A custard-crumb mixture

Every family has “their way”, which is part of the charm.

Ingredients You’ll Need

These cookies use simple, accessible ingredients that come together beautifully:

For the cookies

• Eggs
• Granulated sugar
• Oil
• Milk
• Flour
• Baking powder (or a packet of Lievito Bertolini)
• Pinch of salt
• Marsala (optional but lovely)

For the custard

• Egg yolks
• Sugar
• Flour
• Milk

For assembling

• White vermouth (or rum)
• Red food colouring
• Granulated sugar
• Edible leaves or paper leaves (optional but adorable)

How to Make Pesche con Crema (Step-by-Step Overview)

1. Bake the cookies

Mix the batter, scoop small rounds, roll with wet hands, and bake until lightly golden.

2. Hollow the centres

A melon baller works perfectly. Save the crumbs in case you want to thicken your custard.

3. Cook the custard

A simple stovetop custard that becomes the heart of each peach.

4. Fill and assemble

Place custard inside each half and sandwich them together.

5. Colour and coat

Dip in vermouth mixed with red colouring, then roll in granulated sugar until peach-like.

6. Add “leaves” and let them rest

A night wrapped in plastic helps the flavours meld and softens the cookies beautifully.

Recipe: Pesche con Crema (Custard-Filled Italian Peach Cookies)

FAQ: Pesche Con Crema

Recipe: Pesche con Crema (Custard-Filled Italian Peach Cookies)

Pesche con Crema (Custard-Filled Italian Peach Cookies)

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 19 minutes mins

Total Time 55 minutes mins

Servings 24 Cookies

Ingredients

  

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 c oil
• 1/2 c milk
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder traditionalists can use 1 package Lievito Bertolini found in Italian grocers
• pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp marsala optional
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 tsp sugar
• 4 tsp flour
• 2 c milk
• 1/4 c white vermouth or white rum
• 2 drops red food colouring it’s should be orangish
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• small leaves make sure they are edible or use paper leaves you can get at bakery supply store

Instructions

 

• To make the cakes, preheat an oven to 350° and line a few baking sheets with parchment.
• In a mixing bowl, beat 1 cup sugar and eggs until light; add in the oil and milk and mix again.
• Meanwhile, in another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; add slowly to the egg mixture and mix again.
• Using a small spoon or a cookie scoop, scoop small balls of the dough onto a cookie sheet and with wet hands, roll into uniform balls (the dough will be sticky); press down slightly.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly golden (if you don’t have a convection oven, rotate your trays half-way through the cooking time.
• Cool slightly while you make the custard.
• In a small pot on the stove, heat milk over medium heat.
• In a small dish, beat egg yolks and sugar until combined
• Slowly add, while stirring, about 2 tbsp of warm (not hot) milk and stir again; add flour and stir again.
• Add about 2 more tbsp of warm milk and flour and mix vigorously; add mixture into milk and cook while stirring.
• Keep stirring until mixture thickens; remove from heat
• Strain into a dish through a sieve (this is optional, but if you’re new to custard making, this will keep all lips out of your mix); top with a piece of waxed paper to prevent a skin from forming.
• Now, using a melon baller or small spoon, scoop out the insides of the cookies (see picture above) and set aside the cookie crumbs; place hollowed out cookies on a tray.
• If you’re using the marsala (it will make your cookies a bit more tender), moisten the insides with a bit of marsala.
• In a shallow dish, mix the vermouth with the food colouring until it turns an orangish colour; put granulated sugar in another bowl.
• Spoon about a tsp full of custard into each half and then sandwich 2 halves together.
• Dip into the coloured liquor to coat all sides and roll in the granulated sugar; place on a tray.
• If you wrap the cookies with plastic wrap and wait a day, the cookies will get more tender.
• Add leaves if you are using them, just before you are ready to serve them.

Video