Italian stuffed baked peaches

Diana Henry's recipe for pesche ripiene al forno is inspired by one of Antonio Carluccio’s dishes. It’s a really quick summer dessert – make it once and you can do so without consulting the recipe in future.

Ingreadient

• 6 ripe yellow peaches
• 4 amaretti biscuits, crushed, plus 2 more if needed
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2½ tbsp caster sugar
• 2 British Blacktail Free Range Medium Egg yolks, beaten
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 1½ tbsp flaked almonds
• Butter, for greasing
• 300ml double cream, to serve
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, or to taste, to serve
• Amaretto, to serve (optional)

Step by step

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC, gas mark 6. Halve the peaches and remove the stones. Using a teaspoon, scoop some flesh out of each peach half, then set aside. Remove enough so you have room for the stuffing, but don’t cut right through the flesh to the skin.
2. Finely chop the scooped-out flesh and put half into a large mortar with the 4 crushed biscuits, cocoa powder and caster sugar. Bash to a rough paste with a pestle (you won’t have room in the peaches for all the flesh, so eat what’s left over).
3. Work in the vanilla and almonds with enough egg yolk to bind everything together. The stuffing mixture shouldn’t be too sloppy – it should be easy to spoon it into the peaches. If it’s too wet, crush the remaining 2 biscuits and work them in. Spoon the mixture into the peach halves, then mound it up so the peaches have a generous stuffing.