Baking Croatian Christmas biscuits
Just as it would be unthinkable in some parts of the world to celebrate Christmas without gingerbread or vanilla crescents, no biscuit plate in Croatia is complete without Breskvice. These fruity peach biscuits are traditionally served mainly on festive occasions, as making them requires a bit of patience. It’s certainly no rocket science, though, and with a bit of practice you can bake them at home too. Bring a touch of that holiday feeling into your own home and bake some Croatian Christmas biscuits this year!
22 December 2025
Ingredients for Breskvice
As is often the case with traditional recipes, every family has developed its own variations on Croatian Christmas biscuits over the years. For example, there are differences in the filling used for ‘Fake Peaches’.
For the dough:
- 375 g flour
- 180 g softened butter
- 135 g sugar
- 2 packets vanilla sugar
- 1 egg
- Zest of one lemon
- 1 pinch of baking powder
For the filling:
- 50 g ground walnuts
- 100 g grated chocolate, white or dark
- 2–3 tbsp jam, to taste
- 1-2 tbsp rum or fruit liqueur to complement the jam
For the decoration:
- Water-soluble food colouring in red and yellow
How to make Breskvice
First, mix all the ingredients for the dough together. Knead until you have a firm, malleable dough.
Preheat the oven to 160 °C (fan).
Then shape the dough into balls about the size of marbles. They should weigh around 15 g. It is important that they are all roughly the same size, so it is worth using a consistent measure when portioning the dough, e.g. always the same teaspoon.
Place the balls on a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving about 2 cm between them.
Bake for a maximum of 12 minutes. The balls will become half-spheres. They should not brown, but remain very pale.
Allow to cool briefly, then hollow out the underside. Keep the crumbs; they will be needed for the filling.
Mix the crumbs with the jam, grated chocolate, walnuts and liqueur or rum.
Fill the hollowed-out balls using a piping bag and always join two halves together to form a small peach.
A painstaking task: decorating Breskvice
However, the peach-like appearance of these Croatian Christmas biscuits is far from complete. To make them look as realistic as possible, the biscuits are dipped in food colouring. To do this, mix red food colouring with water in one bowl and yellow food colouring with water in another. If you like, you can also add a little rum or liqueur. Dip the biscuits briefly in one colour first, then in the other. Roll them in sugar and leave to dry.
These biscuits, which are actually little cakes, look particularly pretty when you use lemon balm leaves for decoration. Naturally, these ‘fake peaches’ go best with a cup of coffee or tea. They are a welcome alternative for anyone who has had enough of gingerbread spices, cinnamon and vanilla during Advent. What’s more, you can also serve these festive biscuits in the summer. They taste light, fruity and fluffy, making them perfect for any occasion.
Tip!
Speaking of summer: have you thought about booking your next summer holiday yet? The Lemongarden Hotel is currently closed for the winter, but we’ll be welcoming guests again from April. Take this opportunity to secure your favourite suite at our boutique hotel right by the sea.
