Old Fashioned Coconut And Rose Water Macaroons - cooking recipe

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)

Preparation

Mix the coconut and sugar, add the cream, a little rosewater, a spot of food colouring if using it, and enough egg-white to bind together in a firm paste.
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.
Remove them from the oven, top each with a piece of crystallised rose petal, and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Small pieces of glace 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.