Ingredients

500g flour
3 medium size eggs
90g sugar
100g unsulted butter
16g vanilla flavoured baking powder
Add a little bit of milk if the dough is too dry (depending on the egg size)
10g butter for walnuts shells to avoid sticking with dough during the cooking time

To garnish:
Vanilla & chocolate custard cream (see here how to make it)
30 ml Alchermes Liqueur
White Sugar

Preparation

FOR THE CUSTARD CREAM:
Prepare the custard as per the attached recipe, cook the two flavours custard creams in a heat-resistant bowl and seal them separately with plastic wrap; let it cool and firm perfectly.

FOR THE SWEET PASTRY SHELLS:
In a large bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.
Whisk eggs in another large bowl adding sugar and butter until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing with a fork, until dough is smooth and stiff.

Once the dough is ready roll it out making a 1.5 cm pastry sheet as base for creating the PESCHE shells.
Now using a pastry cutter ring make as many circle as possible according to the sheet dimension.

Insert then, on each ring, a half shell of walnut previously buttered by pressing into the dough.
Place the balls on prepared baking sheets spacing about 1 inch apart.
Preheat the oven then bake at 180° temperature, for about 12-15 minutes the peaches shells until slightly golden brown (do not over cook them otherwise it will be too dry and crumble for the peach shells).
Cool them down on the racks a few minutes then with extreme delicacy remove the half walnut shell and let the half peaches cool completely.

Pour Alchermes liqueur into a deep plate, if you do not like the peaches being too liqueur add to it some water; meanwhile prepare the white sugar in a tray.
Put a teaspoonful of cream in the center of the half peaches (one side with vanilla custard cream and the other side with chocolate custard cream) couple them together and quickly pass them in the liqueur and then roll them in the sugar. Place each pastry on a tray to be refrigerated till serving.

In the pastry shops of Romagna side (Emilia-Romagna region) there is always a famous peach-shaped alchermes liqueur cake, in dialect “Pisgheini” or PESCHE ROMAGNOLE!
It is a typical dessert of Romagna, made by sweet pastry combining pairs of pasta shells stuffed with chocolate and vanilla custard cream finally passed in alchermes liqueur and white sugar.
These sweet peaches are prepared as well during the carnival period to make parties even more colorful. They are named for their similarity to the fruit of the peach tree.