When you need a easy but delicious dessert these Baked Peaches stuffed with Amaretti are for you.
Take ripe, fragrant peaches stuff them with a simple, crushed amaretti filling and you have a match made in heaven and your taste buds are guaranteed to do a happy dance.
Piedmont
Today my daughter arrived in Turin to begin a year long working holiday in Italy. Turin is the capital of Piedmont which is usually associated with these Baked Peaches stuffed with Amaretti so it is appropriate that I post this recipe. Piedmont is home to both mine and my husband’s Italian family. Our trip here some time ago introduced us to some delicious new food including the wonderful dessert Bunet.
Not only is the countryside a spectacular sight of rolling hills dotted with castles but also Turin and the close surrounds boast wonderful palaces and buildings once the pride of the Savoy royalty. While not on the hot tourist route, Piedmont is the perfect combination of everything that is beautiful about Italy without the crowds.
Other delicious recipes from this region are a hot anchovy dip known as bagna cauda and cookies combining Piedmont’s hazelnuts with chocolate to become Baci di Dama (ladies kisses).
Summer time fruit
Here in the Southern hemisphere summer is starting to fade and we are enjoying the last of the summer fruits while in the Northern hemisphere you can bookmark this recipe because your summer is just around the corner. This summer in Northern Australia we had some of the best stone fruit I have had in quite a while. Often stone fruit, peaches in particular can be disappointing because the fruit is picked to early and never fully ripens. Try to find fully ripe and fragrant peaches for this recipe though I suspect that even slightly below par peaches may bake up quite nicely…you know how baking concentrates the sugars in the fruit which caramelise and enhance the flavour. Obviously the best peaches produce the best result!
Baked Peaches stuffed with Amaretti
This simple recipe comes from an old cookbook – Trattoria by Patricia Wells which tagged as “simple and robust fare inspired by the small family restaurants of Italy” and it is absolutely just that. All the recipes I have tried from this cookbook have been successful and quantities and instructions are spot on which seems to be rare in a lot of cookbooks.
If you’re in Australia grab yourself half a dozen late season peaches and try this recipe before the peaches disappear. My friends in the Northern hemisphere, bookmark this recipe and be sure to make these Baked Peaches stuffed with Amaretti, you’ll love them!
Baci,
Marcellina xx
Baked Peaches stuffed with Amaretti
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter for baking dish
- 6 ripe peaches
- ½ cup amaretti cookies
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C and butter a baking dish large enough to fit the peach halves in a single layer.
- Wash, halve and stone the peaches cutting along the natural line of the fruit.
- With a teaspoon or a melon baller, scoop out about a teaspoon of pulp from each half enlarging the cavity. Reserve the pulp.
- Place peaches halves into prepared baking dish, cut side up.
- Grind amaretti in a food processor to fine crumbs or you could do this by hand.
- Transfer mixture to a small bowl and stir in the reserved pulp, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Mix well.
- Spoon the filling into the cavity in each peach half as evenly as possible. Dot the tops with butter.
- Bake peaches in preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until soft and the filling is starting to firm up.
- Serve warm or a room temperature with or without cream or vanilla ice cream.
i do love amaretti biscuits so these would be great. i’m hoping we actually get a winter soon. it is still in the 30Cs here in brissie. cheers sherry
Hi Sherry, thanks for your lovely comments! Yes, I love amaretti biscuits too. It’s getting cooler now and the peaches have disappeared from the shelves. I cant’ wait to make this next summer!
I love the simplicity of this recipe and so delicious at the same time! A classic Italian. Simply wonderful!
Yes, I’ll have to run right out and get some of those last peaches before they run out (and plums, too!). I believe Patricia Wells also lives in Paris and has some French cookbooks. Must now try your Stuffed Peaches recipe!
Yes, get some of those last peaches but also save this recipe for next season – it’s worth it! I can’t wait for peach season to return!
Oh these are making me pine for summer and ripe peaches. I’ve made something similar, and cooked it in an aluminum foil pan on the grill. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and I’m in heaven.
So simple but gorgeous and perfect for the plentiful stonefruit that we have nowadays! 😀
Lorraine, simplicity is what I love when the produce is good!