Hazelnut macaroons, spiced cherries and vanilla cream

Babiche Martens

Cherries are spiced with cinnamon, star anise, vanilla and cardamom - making this a great festive treat.

Hazelnut macaroons

⅓ cup	Plain flour
1 ¼ cups	Ground hazelnuts (Main)
1 ½ cups	Desiccated coconut
¼ tsp	Salt
⅔ cup	Condensed milk
1 tsp	Pure vanilla extract

Spiced cherries and vanilla cream

½ cup	Caster sugar
½ cup	Water
1	Vanilla bean
1	Cinnamon stick
2	Cardamom pods
1	Star anise
3	Juniper berries
2	Black peppercorns
12	Fresh cherries
1 cup	Cream
2 Tbsp	Icing sugar, to dust

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease an oven tray.
2. Mix the flour, hazelnuts, coconut and salt together in a bowl. Mix the condensed milk and vanilla extract together then add, stirring well.
3. Form into desired shapes using wet hands then place on tray and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden.
4. Put the sugar, water, half the vanilla bean split lengthwise, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, juniper and peppercorns all together in a saucepan.
5. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until syrupy. Turn off the heat and add the cherries. Let them sit in the syrup until ready to use.
6. Scrape the seeds from the remaining piece of the vanilla bean into the cream, then whip together.
7. Top the cold macaroons with a little cream and then a cherry. Dust with icing sugar. The syrup can be poured into a jar and kept in the fridge for a future use.