Christmas Sorted | Page 8

  Rose Creams Living in the Middle East, we’re never far away from rosewater, but funnily enough, these are a fairly traditional homemade sweet in Britain too. The flavor is a little adult, but the candy floss pink insides bring out the big kid in all of us. Ing re die nts 3 ta ble spoon s do uble c rea m • P ink (r ose) ge l fo od c olou rin g • 3 ta ble spoon s ro se syru p • 27 5g (10oz) ic ing sug ar • 20 0g (7oz) good qu ali ty, da rk c ho co lat e, bro ke n in to sm al l pi ec e s • 1 te aspo on gro und nut oi l (pe a nut o il)   • Method 1. Place the double cream, a small dab of pink food colouring and the rose syrup into a bowl and mix well. Sift the icing sugar over the cream mixture and stir to combine. Tip the mixture out onto a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and knead the fondant with your hands until it all comes together in a firm ball (add more icing sugar if necessary). Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes. 2. Using your hands, roll 20 teaspoon-sized lumps of mixture into balls, then flatten them slightly and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment. 3. Heat 5cm (2in) of water in a pan. Pop a heatproof bowl on top, making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water. Place the dark chocolate and the groundnut oil in the bowl and warm until melted. Remove from the heat and cool for 10 minutes. 4. Carefully take a fondant ball, one at a time, and, using two forks or toothpicks, dip it in the melted chocolate until coated all over. Do this quickly, as you don’t want to melt the fondant. Place the coated fondant ball onto the baking parchment. Leave to cool and set in a cool place. Notes: ? Makes 20 rose creams. Keeps for at least 3 weeks, depending on the storage ? The rose flavouring could easily be adjusted – perhaps try a little mint essence and green colouring, or orange... Maybe you might want to use some candied coconut flakes in the fondant with a dash of coconut oil rather than the peanut oil added to the chocolate?