Rosewater meringues

Having recently been sent a bottle of Nielsen Massey Rosewater to try and loving the simplicity of a good meringue, I was keen to develop my basic meringue recipe to make this light and delicate dessert.

4 Egg whites (8tbs egg white)
225g (8oz) Caster sugar
5ml (1tsp) Cornflour
5ml (1tsp) White vinegar
5ml (1tsp) Nielsen Massey Rosewater
Pink gel paste food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 130C

2. Line two baking trays with baking parchment.

3. Making sure your mixing bowl is very clean and grease free (or your egg whites won't whisk up), whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks.

4. Gradually add the caster sugar, a spoon at a time, whilst continuing to whisk.  Your mixture will become thick and very glossy.

5. Mix the cornflour, vinegar and Rosewater together then fold into the meringue mix (add any paste colouring at this point too, if desired).

6. Spoon the meringue mixture into a piping bag (I use disposable ones, to save on the washing up!) Snip off the bottom of the bag horizontally to give you a 1cm cut.

7. Pipe even sized circles onto the parchment, approx 3cm in diameter.

8. Place in your preheated oven for 60 minutes, until dry.

9. Remove from the oven. If you gently remove one from the baking parchment and tap the base, you'll know it's cooked because it'll give you a hollow sound.

10. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

I've sandwiched mine together with some double cream which I've whipped up with some icing sugar and 5ml of the Nielsen Massey Rosewater to make a decadent, deliciously light and summery dessert.

You can see in my photos that I've created a 'striped' effect on my meringues.  This is incredibly simple, but effective to do.  Using a disposable piping bag, pinch the bottom point between your thumb, fore and middle fingers.  Turn the bag inside out, over your hand and arm.  Keeping your hand inside and the point pinched to hold it still, use a clean cocktail stick to smear stripes of your chosen gel colour down the inside of your bag. Gently turn the bag back the correct way and fill with your meringue mixture.  The first couple of piped meringues will be more subtle in colour and the stripes less defined than subsequent ones.

I was sent a bottle of the Nielsen Massey Rosewater free of charge.  I was under no obligation to develop or publish a recipe using the product.