1/4 cup white sugar
About 6-8 dried hibiscus blossoms
1/2 tablespoon whole allspice
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 recipe Simple Cookie-Cutter Cookies (or sugar cookie recipe of your choice), baked and cooled
Instructions:
1. Make the hibiscus-allspice syrup:
Whisk the white sugar with 1/4 cup cold water in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar completely melts into the water.
Stir the hibiscus blossoms and allspice berries into the sugar syrup and bring to a very brief simmer. Reduce heat to low and steep for 20-30 minutes, partially covered. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Remove the solids and drain and reserve the hibiscus flowers to make the candied hibiscus topping for the cookies. You can discard the used allspice.
2. Make the hibiscus glaze:
In a small dish, whisk the powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of the hibiscus-allspice syrup and the heavy cream until smooth. (Reserve the rest of the syrup to sweeten your tea, make co*cktails, or something else, see notes!)
3. Dry the candied hibiscus flowers:
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees with the rack in the middle position. Distribute the reserved hibiscus flowers from the syrup on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Spread them out so there’s plenty of room for hot air to circulate around them. Toast in the oven for 20-30 minutes until they begin to get aromatic and the syrup remnants on the parchment are starting to brown. The flowers may still seem somewhat soft, but they will crisp up as they sit.
Cool the hibiscus completely and check that they are crisp. If they still seem soft after cooling completely, either put them back in the oven or toast them briefly in a dry pan set over medium heat to finish crisping them up. When completely cool, they may be just a bit leathery and pliable in places, but they should mainly be crisp and dry.
4. Make the crushed hibiscus topping:
To crush them, place the hibiscus between two sheets of wax or parchment paper, then roll over them with a rolling pin to crush them. If they are still a tad leathery, you can use a chef’s knife as needed to chop through them, before and/or after rolling. The finished consistency can range from fairly fine to somewhat rough and coarse. All good!
5. Glaze and top your cookies:
Glaze the cookies by using a small spoon to scoop a bit of glaze onto the middle of each cookie, then use the back of the spoon to spread it in a circular pattern until the top of the cookie is covered. Alternatively, you can brush the glaze over the cookies with a pastry brush, or dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze.
While the glaze is still wet, sprinkle the candied hibiscus pieces over the tops of the cookies. (You can choose whether to add the candied hibiscus to some or all of the cookies. I like to do a combination.)
Let the glazed cookies sit overnight. The candied hibiscus will stay in place as the glaze hardens, and you should be able to stack and transport them as needed the next day.
Notes:
I originally created this recipe for our Spice Club LIVE Zoom cooking class in December 2022. I wanted to give members several recipes they could make with the hibiscus flowers they received as the featured spice in their Spice Club Kit that month. So we made champagne co*cktails and spirit-free seltzer co*cktails, plus cookies with this glaze and candied topping. All perfect for holiday celebrations!
The hibiscus-allspice syrup in this recipe is actually the same as the syrup in this co*cktail recipe, so you can use the leftover syrup to make the co*cktails! You can also use it to sweeten your iced tea, or warm it in a saucepan and stir a splash of cream into it to make a fancy pancake syrup. You could also stir a little into buttercream frosting to add flavor and color to a birthday cake or a batch of cupcakes. The possibilities are endless!
Hibiscus flowers are great to cook with, adding tartness and a touch (or a burst!) of red color to whatever you’re using them in. They’re originally from Africa, and they’re also used in lots of other cuisines including Latin American, Caribbean, South Asian and more. I like pairing them with something like allspice as in this recipe, to add a deeper, warming counterpoint. When I originally created the champagne co*cktail recipe above with these flavors, it was for a New Year’s Eve party, and I liked the seasonal combination of festive red hibiscus with warming allspice. Other spices that pair nicely with hibiscus include things like cloves and Ethiopian korerima.
My go-to cookie recipe is this one, so that’s the one I used here. The cookie dough is not overly sweet, so to my palate it’s perfect for any type of fancy glaze (like this one!) or sugared topping.
