Recipe: Peach Cookies

PEACHES COOKIES
Source: Gail
Makes about 5 dozen

Note from source: A lot of work but beautiful!

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp vanilla
3 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2/3 c apricot jam
1/3 cup chopped filberts, walnuts or pecans
2 tsp rum or sherry
1/4 cup chocolate pieces, melted, cooled
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup red sugar (recipe follows)
2/3 cup yellow/orange sugar (recipe follows)
Green stem/leaf pieces or
Green gum drops or marzipan
Cinnamon Sticks

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Measure butter, milk, 1 cup sugar, eggs, baking powder, vanilla and 2 cup flour into large mixing bowl. Blend 30 seconds on low speed scraping sides constantly. Beat 1 minute on medium speed scraping occasionally.

Stir in remaining flour (Dough will be smooth and soft). Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls. Place balls 1-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in center of oven 15-20 minutes or until cookies are brown on bottom. Cool.

Place tip of knife in center of flat side of cookie. Hollow by rotating cookie and turning knife. Save the crumbs.

Mix 1 1/2 cup of crumbs with jam, chocolate, nuts, and rum. Fill hollowed cookies with crumb mixture and press 2 cookies together (flat sides) to make the "peach".

Brush each peach very lightly with water and immediately roll into red sugar for blush and then sprinkle yellow/orange sugar on top of peach to cover completely. Set aside to dry.

RED SUGAR:
measure 1/3 c sugar into shallow oven proof dish. Add few drops food color. Rub color evenly into sugar and heat sugar in oven 400 to dry, stir occasionally.

YELLOW/ORANGE SUGAR:
Measure 2/3 cup sugar add 2 drops of red and enough yellow to make peach color. Do same as above to dry the sugar.

TO MAKE GUM DROP LEAVES:
Roll gum drops 1/8-inch thick on well sugared board, cut tiny leaf shapes make a stem hole in stem end of leaf and insert a small piece of cinnamon through hole and then insert into end (seam) of peach.

Store in airtight containers, no longer than 2 weeks or no longer than 3 weeks in the freezer.