Chocolate-filled peaches and soft macaroons

A traditional Piedmontese dessert, simple and genuine, smelling of summer. Le chocolate-filled peaches originated as a family recipe: fresh fruit emptied and filled with a mouth-watering filling of macaroons and cocoa. With the addition of soft macaroons from Mombaruzzo the result is even more enveloping, thanks to their intense almond aroma and tender texture that blends perfectly with the chocolate.

Ingredients (for 6 persons)

• 6 ripe but firm yellow peaches
• 120 g soft macaroons from Mombaruzzo
• 40 g of bitter cocoa powder
• 80 g sugar
• 1 egg
• 30 g melted butter
• icing sugar to taste.

Procedure

1. Wash the peaches well, cut them in half and remove the stone.
2. Lightly scoop out the inner pulp with a teaspoon and collect it in a bowl.
3. Add the crumbled macaroons, bitter cocoa, sugar, egg and melted butter to the peach pulp. Mix until a homogeneous filling is obtained.
4. Stuff the peach halves with the mixture, place them in a buttered baking dish and sprinkle a little caster sugar on top.
5. Bake in the oven at 180°C for about 30 minutes, until they are soft and slightly caramelised.
6. Serve warm or cold, with a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Stuffed peaches are perfect as a summer dessert, perhaps accompanied by a scoop of cream or vanilla ice cream.