Desert rose (Rose des sables)

September 10, 2012  •  Category: , ,

 

 


Growing up I was fascinated with a beautiful rock  that was on display on a glass shelf at home;  my mother had brought it  back from one of her trips; it had  fine pointed edges and it was called rose des sables (desert rose).

It looked  like a rose made of stiff sand.  I would stare at it every day  wondering how it was ever formed. 

Well, later on, a candy was invented by a genius pastry chef (or was it the marketing gurus at McDonalds or General Mills?), with corn flakes dipped in chocolate sauce and it was named rose des sables, too.

In that candy, chocolate, butter and sugar are combined into a rich sauce and the corn flakes are dipped into it and lumped into little mounds. 

My version today looks more like a candy the French call mendiant, which means beggar, but looks like a coin on which two or three nuts or dried fruits are studded. I thought that looked more elegant. 

It takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and they wait patiently for you in the fridge for the snack attack moment to hit.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 bar of chocolate of your choice, preferably good-quality (3 oz)
  • 1 cup of cereals 
  • a few dried fruits, if desired (I used a few candied orange rinds)
METHOD:
  1. Melt the chocolate (cut it in squares first) in a skillet over very gentle heat. Stir with a wooden spoon as soon as it starts to melt and remove from heat; the residual heat will melt the rest of the chocolate. (Can be done in the microwave as well)
  2. Place a large piece of foil on a baking sheet; take small spoonfuls of chocolate and drop in several places. When the chocolate has been used up, grab a few flakes of cereals and fruit (if using) and gingerly set on top of the chocolate mounds. 
  3. Set in the fridge to harden until serving time. Store in the fridge in a covered box once they have hardened.

Comments

6 Comments  •  Comments Feed

  1. domi says:

    Délicieuse petite fleur gourmande….

  2. kouky says:

    hummm!! je prendrai bien cette petite gourmandise avec mon café!! merci Joumana de nous gâter!!

  3. swati says:

    so easy and great! yum.

  4. Diane says:

    I tried to get into this post yesterday and I got the message that this site did not exist, wonder where it went to – on holiday perhaps.
    I am a huge chocolate fan and I will certainly try this out, it sounds very yummy, thanks. Have a good week, Diane

  5. Jeanne @ CookSister! says:

    How funny – I bought a piece of desert rose tock at a shop as a kid because I was also fascinated by beautiful rocks and stones. I spent ages wondering how you could “make” a piece…! These cookies seem like a far easier (and more delicious!) option…

  6. Susan says:

    This makes me smile to think of all of the cereal-related desserts I have eaten over the years. Yours brings it to another level! So beautiful.

Add a Comment