Hazelnut macaroons, spiced cherries, vanilla cream

Hazelnut macaroons, spiced cherries, vanilla cream. Photo / Babiche Martens

Makes 12

1/3 cup plain flour
1 1/4 cups ground hazelnuts
1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
1 vanilla bean
1 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods
1 star anise
3 juniper berries
2 black peppercorns
12 cherries
1 cup cream
icing sugar

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. Form into desired shapes using wet hands then place on tray and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden.

3 Put the sugar, water, half the vanilla bean split lengthwise, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, juniper and peppercorns all together in a saucepan. 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.

4 Scrape the seeds from the remaining piece of the vanilla bean into the cream then whip together. 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.