Pastries Recipes - Peaches in Filo Pastry Recipe

Ingredients

SERVES 6

• 150g/5oz Amaretti biscuits

• 100g/4oz ricotta cheese

• 2 teaspoons demerara sugar

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Amaretto

• 6 peaches

• 450g/1lb filo pastry (large sheets)

• 100g/4oz butter (melted)

• 100g/4oz flaked almonds

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Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

2. Place the biscuits in a polythene bag and crush coarsely with a rolling pin. Mix together the ricotta, 75g/3oz crushed biscuits, the demerara sugar and Amaretto to form a fairly stiff paste.

3. Carefully cut each peach in half and remove the stone. Replace the stone with a spoonful of the ricotta mixture and sandwich the halves back together again.

4. Open out the pastry and, slicing through all the squares at once, cut into 20cm/8in squares. You will need 18 squares in total. Keep the filo covered with a damp tea towel while you work.

5. For each peach use 3 of the filo squares. Working with one peach at a time, butter each square of pastry and lay on top of each other at different angles, so you have a 12-pointed star.

6. Spoon one sixth of the remaining Amaretti crumbs into the middle of the filo.

7. Put a whole peach on top of the crumbs, stalk-side down. Gather up the sides of the pastry and pinch together at the top, securing with string. Repeat with the remaining 5 peaches.

8. Place the peaches on a greased baking tray. Brush each parcel with any remaining butter and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.