Roses in food
'love roses cupcake'
pistachio cupcake with rose water swiss meringue butter cream topped with rose & pistachio sugar pieces.
Rose water is inexpensive and easily available where I live, usually found next to the vanilla in the supermarket, but from emails I've received some of you can't get your hands on it. Amazon does have rose water & dried roses, you could pop some in with your next book order or perhaps ...
Your can make your own simply from dried or fresh roses;
Dried 'dried for culinary purposes roses, whole or petals', are found in Asian, Middle Eastern & Indian grocery stores (pick up a bottle of rose essence/extract when you are there too), plus specialist supermarkets/food stores. I bought a large bag of whole rose buds for $2.99 at the local Asian grocery store last week.
Fresh roses not sprayed with pesticide from florists or maybe your Aunty's garden.
Rose Water for culinary purposes
Method
Fill a heatproof bowl with rinsed rose petals (fresh or dried), pour boiling water over the petals & cover with plastic wrap or tight fitting lid. Refrigerate overnight, the next day strain the liquid through a fine sieve. To store the rose water fill an ice-cube tray with the rose liquid, freeze until hard, then transfer the cubes to freezer proof plastic bags. Defrost a cube/s at room temperature when ready to use.
Unlike the supermarket version yours will be a pretty colour & will vary in strength depending on the type of rose, how much water you used etc, but you have a perfectly useable and delicious rose water.
Rose water has many savoury applications but my favourite way to use it is in desserts. Wonderful partnered with dairy, but equally delicious in a cookie try out your rose water in... milk drinks, ice-cream, custards, rice puddings, yoghurt, turkish delight, marzipan, marshmallows, jam, jelly, French madeleine cookies, as the filling for French macarons, or chocolates. Try a few drops of rose water in your next batch of frosting, icing or fondant and you definetly shouldn't miss a sponge cake filled with berries and rose water whipped cream, finish with a dusting of icing sugar... perfection!!
Happy Baking :)
Reader Comments (5)
sounds divine - mmm home made turkish delight here I come!
Thanks lazy cook :) Do you make good turkish delight? Mine needs work a bit rubbery in texture.
Thank you for the recipe this just looks absolutely divine!
I love the look of this cupcake, so sophisticated, fit for a queen.
I have never used rose water, I have a rose jam that I bought but I haven't used it yet. There are whole petals in it.
I have rose flower water, never used it, I wonder if it is same thing as rose water you have, it has a flowery scent.
I think seeing your beautiful cupcake I need to explore a bit more and try this baking spirit soon.
Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Thank you Karen :)
Haniela, I can imagine you using rose in your gorgeous baking!! The rose flower water should be the same thing, does it have a list of ingredients? Commercial rose water is distilled and should be clear in colour. There is good quality rose water coming out of Lebanon, Amazon stocks a few. It's a lovely flavour used sparingly.