I have a confession to make. I dropped the ball on finding hibiscus flowers. I know it’s a defining feature of the recipe, but I was unable to find it in stores, and I just didn’t plan far enough in advance to order it online. Alison advises that we should be able to find dried hibiscus flowers in our local Caribbean or Jamaican grocery store… just me or do you also not have a Caribbean grocery store nearby? It must be nice to live in Brooklyn. ;)
I imagine that hibiscus flowers would add a pleasant, and for lack of a better word, floral note to the dish. But the peaches were just as delicious on their own. Paired with lemon juice, sugar, and a bit of water, these peaches spend about 30 minutes in the oven, until they start bubbling on the edges and the liquid turns slightly syrupy. The lemon juice is rather prominent in flavor which necessitated the brown sugar bread crumbs to balance the sourness.
One of the key food lessons from this project entails the power of fresh bread crumbs. Alison loves her fried bread crumbs with various seasonings. They add texture and depth to her dishes, and now I love them too. Whether sauteed in butter or olive oil, seasoned with garlic and pepper flakes, sumac and anchovies, or brown sugar, bread crumbs take a dish to the next level. Bread crumbs fried in butter and brown sugar, and sprinkled with flaky sea salt elevated these peaches, balancing the sourness of lemon juice and giving a rich texture to the softened fruit.
All that to say, this dessert didn’t take my breath away like some of Alison’s other desserts. But I’m not sure “breath-taking” is what she’s going for. Alison gives us her spin on a classic summer dessert, and I think she just wants to give us a good time. Well, a good time was had.
113 recipes cooked, 112 to go.
