Austrian Apricot and Chocolate Peach Cookies

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius).

Take a large mixing bowl and combine the butter with 1 cup of sugar until you have a smooth mixture. Gradually add eggs one at a time, followed by the addition of vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder, then slowly incorporate this mixture into the butter-sugar mixture in an alternating manner with milk.

Form dough balls of 1 inch diameter and place them 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the bottom of the cookies starts to turn golden brown. Remove from the baking sheet and let them cool on wire racks.

Once the cookies are completely cooled, use a small knife to carve a hole into the flat side of each cookie. Set aside the crumbs from this process. In another heatproof bowl, melt chocolate chips using either a microwave or simmering water on the stovetop. Stir constantly until smooth.

In another bowl, combine melted chocolate with apricot jam, ground pecans, rum, and the reserved crumbs. Mix until well combined. Fill the hollowed-out centers of the cookies with this chocolate mixture and join two cookies together by pressing their filling sides into each other to form a peach shape.

Divide the remaining 1 cup of sugar in half. One portion should be 1/4 cup and the other 3/4 cup. Color one of these portions with red coloring by rubbing it into your fingers, and color the other portion with yellow coloring. Add a pinch of red sugar to the yellow portion to give it a peachy hue.

Brush each cookie with water, then roll them first in the yellow sugar and dip a portion of them into the red sugar to give them a blush. Insert plastic green stems into the top of each cookie for a realistic effect.