You have to try this Italian dessert, it’s Baked Amaretti and Vin Santo Plums with Mascarpone Cream – outrageously good. It is from the recipe book ‘Falling Cloudberries’ by Tessa Kiros. With a really rich, full-bodied taste, it’s a winner if you’re looking to impress.
I went all out and bought the ingredients from The Best of Italy on Dunville Avenue in Ranelagh. It’s an Italian grocery shop that sells, well, the very best of Italy.
This family-run place has been around for years and has a great selection of pastas, cheeses, meats, cakes and other artisan foods that you won’t get in the supermarket. There is a very friendly Italian working there who is always eager to please and set you on the right track. They also have a large selection of fruit and vegetables out the front which are always fresh and well priced.
I picked up decent plums (which were cheaper than the miserable looking plums in Tesco), proper amaretti biscuits and authentic mascarpone. The recipe also calls for Vin Santo which is a posh and expensive dessert wine but the friendly Italian at the shop said that Marsala dessert wine will do just as well at half the price. That’s the sort of advice you want when making a proper Italian dish.
Maybe I’m a fatty but I think half a plum each is way too little so I served two plums each – I do however wash myself with a rag on a stick.
Baked Amaretti and Vin Santo Plums with Mascarpone Cream
Serves 12
Ingredients:
- 40g amaretti biscuits
- 6 juicy but firm red plums
- 40g butter, diced
- 30g caster sugar
- 3 tablespoons vin santo
The mascarpone cream
- 200ml whipping cream
- 250g mascarpone
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 200C. Crush the amaretti biscuits to coarse crumbs. Cut through the plums all the way through to the stone. Hold the plum in your palm and twist the other half away so that it comes off smoothly. Sit the plums cut side up in a baking dish. Remove the stones with a teaspoon, twisting the teaspoon a little deeper than the natural cavity to make it a bit bigger and letting any juices dribble into the baking dish.
- Spoon a heap of amaretti biscuits over the plums so they settle into the cavities and over the tops. Dot a little butter over each plum and scatter with sugar. Scatter the rest of the sugar and butter around the plums with the vin santo. Bake for 15 minutes or until the liquid starts to get a bit of a caramel look, then add about 80ml of hot water around the plums. Bake for another 15 minutes or so, until the tops are golden and crusty and plums are soft but still in shape. Remove from the oven.
- To make the mascarpone cream, whip the cream, mascarpone, sugar and vanilla together until smooth and thick. Serve the plums with a spoonful of the mascarpone cream and any pan juices dribbled over the top.