Old Fashioned Coconut And Rose Water Macaroons

Total Time: 25 mins Preparation Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 250 g desiccated coconut (not sweetened coconut)
• 250 g icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
• 4 tablespoonfuls cream
• rose water (to taste)
• 2 large egg whites (lightly beaten)
• rice paper
• red food coloring (optional)
• crystallised rose petal (optional)

Recipe

• 1 mix the coconut and sugar, add the cream, a little rosewater, a spot of food colouring if using it, and enough egg- to bind together in a firm paste.
• 2 use teaspoons or dessertspoons, dipped in water, to shape small oval quenelles, or use a mould to shape them into pyramids. place them on a baking-sheet, lined with rice paper, and bake in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 3/170 c for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are just set and still pale.
• 3 remove them from the oven, top each with a piece of crystallised rose petal, and leave to cool on a wire rack.
• 4 small pieces of glacé cherries can be substituted for the rose petals. when the macaroons are baked you can dip them in a little melted chocolate and leave it to set if you wish too.