Nonna’s Peaches Con Crema Cookies

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Norpak Silbake pan liners.

Step 2: To make the dough: In a large bowl, combine flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar. Add in milk, vegetable oil, and lemon zest and whisk until smooth. Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until dough is smooth. Let the dough mixture rest for 5-7 minutes.

Step 3: Using a tablespoon of dough, roll the dough between your palms to form a round ball. Place dough balls on baking sheet – spaced at least 1 inch apart.

Step 4: Bake dough balls at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Once golden brown, transfer dough balls to a cooling rack and cool slightly, but not completely.

Step 5: While dough balls are still slightly warm, carve out inside of cookie carefully using a small, sharp knife. Make sure the hole is hollow enough to hold about 1 tsp. of filling.

Step 6: Fill each hollowed-out cookie with 1 tsp. of chocolate pudding. Carefully sandwich two cookies together to form a peach shape and set aside.

Step 7:  Pour almond extract in a small bowl and add enough yellow and red food coloring to create desired shade of peach for cookies. Fill a separate shallow bowl with sugar.

Step 8: Using a pastry brush, brush each cookie with colored almond extract and roll in sugar to coat. After all cookies are coated, store in covered container and refrigerate overnight.

Step 9: Before serving, pierce each cookie with a toothpick and insert the stem of a decorative peach leaf or use green decorating gel to create a stem.