Fruit Mounds

Beat the butter, sugar and salt in a bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer for several minutes until fluffy.

Roughly chop 100 g white chocolate. Split the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.

Mix the flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl.

Add the flour–baking powder mixture, the chopped 100 g chocolate and the vanilla seeds to the butter–sugar mixture and mix briefly.

Chop 100 g dried, soft apricots. Add the apricots and the egg to the dough and knead everything into a smooth dough.

Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for about 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven: fan 160 °C (conventional 180 °C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Scoop off hazelnut-sized pieces of dough and roll them into balls with slightly moistened hands. Place them on the sheet about 3 cm apart.

Bake the fruit mounds for about 10 minutes, then remove them from the oven and let them cool briefly on the baking sheet.

Flatten the remaining apricots and cut out small stars.

Melt the remaining white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water (bain-marie).

Attach the apricot stars to the cookies using a little of the melted white chocolate.