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A Taste of 2023 – Hibiscus

This popular ingredient gives a whole new meaning to flower power.

Everyone is looking for bigger, bolder flavors, and hibiscus delivers: The electric pink flower is boldly floral and unmistakably tangy, and we’ve all become obsessed. “The taste is a showstopper—like the fabulous dress at a party everyone notices,” says Suzy Badaracco, president of food trend forecaster Culinary Tides, Inc. While the tart, citrusy flowers have been a popular ingredient in tea and cocktails forages,Google searches for hibiscus drinks have doubled in the past year, and chefs are adding the flavor to everything from appetizers to desserts: Hibiscus mentions on restaurant menus have risen 24 percent over the past few years. You’ll also find it all over the grocery store—in yogurt, goat cheese, sparkling water and sorbet, to name a few. Bonus: It’s full of vitamin C and other antioxidants. Taste it for yourself in one of these pretty pink recipe — Carol Lee

HIBISCUS-LEMON MINI BUNDT CAKES 

ACTIVE 45 min TOTAL: 2 hr MAKES: 6

1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

4 teaspoons lemon-hibiscus tea leaves (from about 4 tea bags), crumbled with your fingers

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice (from about 1 large lemon)

1¼ sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¾ cup sour cream

Cooking spray

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Jarred hibiscus flowers in syrup, chopped, for topping, plus 2 tablespoons syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the granulated sugar, crumbled tea leaves and lemon zest in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until well combined, about 1 minute. Add the butter and beat, scraping down the bowl, until light and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time until combined, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the sour cream. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until smooth.

2. Spray a 6-cup mini bundt pan generously with cooking spray and dust with flour, shaking out any excess. Evenly divide the batter among the cups, filling each about two-thirds of the way. Bake until the cakes are golden on top and spring back when gently pressed, 27 to 32 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and let the cakes cool about 10 minutes, then remove the cakes to the rack to cool completely.

3. Meanwhile, whisk the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice and hibiscus syrup in a medium bowl until smooth and spreadable. (The glaze should be thick; if it’s too stiff, thin with a few drops of water.) Spoon the glaze over the cakes, letting it drip down the sides. Top with some chopped hibiscus flowers. Let set, at least 20 minutes.

HIBISCUS-GINGER ICE CREAM FLOAT

ACTIVE: 25 min l TOTAL: 1 hr 25 min l MAKES: 1 drink (plus extra syrup)

1. Make the syrup: Combine the hibiscus, sugar, ginger and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and cook for about 1 minute.Remove from the heat and let cool, then refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour.

2. Strain the syrup through a fine-mesh sieve into a liquid measuring cup or storage container; discard the solids. (The syrup will keep for 2 to 3 weeks in a sealed container in the refrigerator.)

3. Make the float: Add the ice cream to a tall glass. Pour 3 tablespoons of the hibiscus syrup over the ice cream. Slowly pour in the seltzer, giving the foam a few seconds to subside.

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Homemade Cookies for Our Military

My husband LOVES cookies. And he especially loves getting them in a care package. There’s nothing quite like homemade cookies to make my pilot’s eyes light up and his smile grow big, even on a boring day during deployment.

One common problem in sending care packages is getting them there in one piece. In other words, not as a bag full of crumbs but actually still in the whole cookie shape.

The solution? It’s all in the packaging. Your loved one can receive and enjoy fresh-tasting, whole cookies and while we are a flower shop we also do many custom gift baskets, one of them being homemade cookies.  Recently we had troops return to Iowa and thought about what they might have missed.  Homemade cookies came to mind.  We sell gift baskets of cookies and have looked into sending them.  The Wild Orchid is pleased to offer shipping homemade cookies to your special someone of our troops out of state.

Picture the disappointment. Your Marine’s, misfortune when a box of “Sent with Love” chocolate cookies arrives melted onto the children’s photos. Your sailor’s sadness when moldy brownies mailed from Grandma have to be discarded. Your soldier’s irritation when faced with a pile of cookie crumbs that can’t be salvaged.  The Wild Orchid will guarantee the arrival of cookies in tact and edible.

I am sure most service members would love home-baked cookies any time of the year.

At Christmas times we have learned of the following schedule

  • Nov. 8 Standard Post®
  • Nov. 26 Space Available Mail
  • Dec. 3 Parcel Air Lift
  • Dec. 10 First-Class Mail®, Priority Mail®
  • Dec. 17 Priority Mail Express Military® Service

Contact Us at 515-276-4600 to get started on your order of gooey yummy homemade cookies.