amaretto peaches layered with amaretti biscuits and marscapone cream

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amaretto peaches with amaretti biscuits and marscapone cream

So it’s the beginning of a brand new year (Happy New year by the way), and we are all supposed to be working on our new years resolutions that inevitably involve cutting out all the naughty (aka good) stuff from our diets, and hitting the gym with a vengeance.

This is not one of those new year healthy recipes. This is for people who don’t care about that. This is for people who do care about it, but look at pictures of forbidden food and derive some form of masochistic pleasure from it (*coughs and looks in the mirror*).

This is however a ridiculously easy, ridiculously decadent and a ridiculously delicious dessert that embraces 3 layers of almond flavour and texture.

Marscapone is a triple cream cheese made from cream. Its ultra thick, ultra fresh tasting, and makes the perfect addition to a decadent dessert.  It’s so rich and creamy that it becomes necessary to break it down with cream. Does this make sense? Lighten the dessert with cream?

Like all things culinary (and in life) balance is important.  Its finding the perfect synergy between the elements without forgetting the ever important textural component, the crunch.

This recipe will make 4 – 6 desserts depending on the size of glass you serve them in.

So you start out by very simply poaching halved peaches (I used 4 peaches / 8 halves) in a pot with 1/2 cup of Amaretto (you could add a little more) and about 80ml of water, with the lid on for about 10 – 15 minutes until they have softened but still maintain their shape.  I don’t bother peeling them as the skin softens in the cooking process, but if the skin bothers you, by all means peel them.

Once they have been poached all them to cool in the delicious sweet golden sauce. They are pretty awesome just as is, served with a dollop of cream or a scoop of ice cream, but I decided to take it a little bit further. Slice the peaches and toss in the sauce.

peaches poached in amaretto make a fabulous simple dessert

To make the creamy layer, beat 1 cup of cream (25oml) of cream until its thick. Using the same whisk / electric beater, lightly whip 250gm Marscapone to loosen it up (so equal quantity cream to Marscapone cheese).  Fold the whipped cream into the whipped Marscapone adding 2 Tbs of icing sugar and 2 Tbs of Amaretto.

Lightly crumble about 100 – 150 gms of Amaretti biscuits and then layer the desserts as follows:

Cream + crumbs + peach slices with a drizzle of the sauce. Repeat this ending off with a cream layer. Drizzle over the last bit of the Amaretti sauce and a sprinkle over a few toasted almond slices.

I promise you will love me after eating this. I promise that your guests will go mad.

layers of sweet, creamy and crunchy

23 Comments

  1. What a fantastically yummy recipe to push me into the New Year. Marscarpone is truly yummy.

  2. Thanks Shante, I hope you make it while peaches are in season 🙂

  3. OMG that looks flippin awesome….just my kind of desert. Will have to wait until after my two week detox tho… 🙂

  4. Looks delicious. Would love for you to share your pictures with us over at foodepix.com.

  5. I am exactly the kind of person that this dessert was made for! Divine

  6. Sandi Hill says:

    Please let me know where i can buy smoked red pepper flakes – i see you use it in quite a few receipes and i would love to have some.

  7. L Bradford says:

    What a wonderful dessert! Thank you for sharing.

  8. Thanks Bradford, glad you like 🙂

  9. jean shaw says:

    Truly gorgeous just tried it out on my mum! I lost the picture off my lap top and made the mistake of adding the crumbs
    to the creamy mixture but it still tasted yummy, will present it better for my dinner party. Thankyou.

  10. Hi jean, glad you enjoyed and thanks for stopping by to let me know.
    Sam

  11. Hi Sam.

    Where can I purchase Amaretto and Amaretti biscuits? Im in Durban.. And does it contain alcohol?

    Thanks 🙂

  12. Hi Leila. you should be able to find Amaretto at any large and good liquor store. Yes it does contain alcohol as its a liqueur. Amaretti biscuits will be found in an Italian deli or big spar.

  13. How many does it make please?

  14. Hi Mel – around 4 – 6 depending on the size of the serving dishes.

  15. There are no fresh peaches in the tropics, can I use canned ones?

  16. Hi Brenda, tinned peaches will work. I love tinned peaches

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