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Created on August 20, 2026
Allergens: Tree nuts.From the ingredient list, against Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. Always check the labels of the products you use.
Few desserts come out of a pan that colour. A deep garnet red, almost opaque, achieved without a gram of colouring: it comes from dried hibiscus calyces, in ten minutes of steeping, and they bring at the same time the acidity that keeps this dessert from cloying.
That is the whole point of the method: a pear poached in red wine is heavy, slow, and confined to winter. The same pear poached in hibiscus takes twenty-five minutes, contains no alcohol, is as good warm as chilled, and costs the price of a handful of dried calyces. Toasted cashew pieces bring the crunch poached fruit always lacks.
Hibiscus, by the people who sell it
First misunderstanding to clear up: what you buy is not a flower. These are the calyces of Hibiscus sabdariffa — the fleshy envelope that surrounds the seed once the flower has dropped. The flower itself is pale yellow and of no culinary use. It is the calyx that reddens, thickens, and is picked by hand before being dried in the sun. Bissap in Senegal and Burkina Faso, karkade in Egypt, zobo in Nigeria, agua de Jamaica in Mexico: the same plant, four continents, as many names.
Second thing: colour and acidity are two different matters. The red comes from anthocyanins, the same pigments as in blackcurrant, and it passes into water within minutes. The acidity comes from organic acids that keep on releasing long afterwards. That is why an over-long steeping turns harsh without turning redder: as soon as the colour is there, take the calyces out. Ten minutes is enough, fifteen at most.
Third thing, for choosing: look at the proportion of whole calyces. Good hibiscus comes as closed, supple calyces of a dark, almost purple red. A bright red powder at the bottom of the bag means broken, older calyces, which steep faster but give a more marked bitterness. And do not throw the calyces away after steeping: rehydrated and finely chopped, they are very good in a fruit salad or a tabbouleh.
Our organic hibiscus flowers come in 100 g bags — enough for a good twenty rounds of this recipe.
Ingredients
Serves 4:
For the pears:
- 4 firm pears, Conference or Williams (about 600 g)
- 500 ml water
- 20 g dried organic hibiscus flowers, two good tablespoons
- 80 g brown sugar
- 15 g fresh ginger, finely sliced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
To serve:
- 40 g organic cashew nuts
- A few mint leaves
The recipe, step by step
- Steep the hibiscus. Bring the water to a bare simmer, take it off the heat, drop in the calyces and leave to steep, covered, for ten minutes. Strain, pressing lightly, and keep the calyces aside: they will be used again.
- Build the syrup. Return the infusion to the pan with the sugar, ginger, cinnamon and lemon juice. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.
- Prepare the pears. Peel them, keeping the stalk, and core them from underneath with a teaspoon — they will stand upright on the plate.
- Poach. Lower the pears into the simmering syrup, cover, and cook for 20 to 25 minutes depending on ripeness. Turn them halfway so they colour evenly. A knife tip should meet no resistance.
- Let them cool in the syrup, at least two hours. The colour penetrates as they cool: taken out straight away, the pears stay pink on the surface and white at the core.
- Reduce the syrup. Lift out the pears, then boil the syrup uncovered until it coats the spoon — five to eight minutes. About a glassful should remain.
- Toast the cashews dry for three minutes in a pan, then chop them roughly.
- Serve. One pear per plate, the well-reduced syrup poured over, the cashew pieces and mint on top.
The trick: whatever you do, do not throw away the strained calyces. Finely chopped and mixed with a spoonful of the reduced syrup, they make a sharp compote to sit in the hollow of the cored pear. That is where the dessert stops being pretty and becomes interesting.
Substitutions
- Pears → white peaches in summer (10 minutes of cooking is enough), quinces in autumn (allow 45 minutes), or prunes for a winter version.
- Brown sugar → honey, added off the heat so as not to cook it, or agave syrup. Use a third less: the sweetening power is greater.
- Ginger → a split vanilla pod, or three Sichuan peppercorns for a more grown-up version.
- Cashews → roasted chopped peanuts, or toasted sesame seeds.
Storing and getting ahead
In the fridge: 4 days in their syrup, in a sealed jar. The colour deepens by the day — this is a dessert that gains from waiting.
In the freezer: not advised. Pear flesh releases its water on thawing and turns cottony.
What can be done the day before: everything, apart from the cashews and the mint. It is in fact the best way to go about it.
Leftover syrup keeps three weeks in the fridge. Topped up with sparkling water, it makes a very respectable fizzy bissap.
Equipment
A pan deep enough for the pears to be submerged, standing or lying, a fine sieve to strain the infusion, and a melon baller if you have one for coring. Nothing else.
Nutrition
Nutrition declaration
| Per 100 g | Per serving (188 g) | Total for 4 servings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 120 kcal | 225 kcal | 900 kcal |
| Fat | 2.7 g | 5.0 g | 20 g |
| of which saturates | 0.5 g | 0.9 g | 3.6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 22 g | 41 g | 164 g |
| of which sugars * | 18 g | 34 g | 137 g |
| of which polyols * | 1.6 g | 3.0 g | 12 g |
| Fibre | 2.6 g | 4.8 g | 19 g |
| Protein | 1.2 g | 2.2 g | 8.9 g |
| Salt | 0.02 g | 0.04 g | 0.18 g |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
If you change the number of servings above, only the last column moves — and that is right: doubling the recipe doubles the cake, not the slice. The first two columns describe the cake itself; they do not depend on how many people are eating.
Values calculated from the ingredients, for 4 servings, allowing for about 0 % evaporation during cooking. They are no substitute for a laboratory analysis and vary with the brands used.
* The reference data do not give every value for Noix de cajou, crue, Jus de citron, fait maison. Rows marked with an asterisk are therefore minimums: the true figure is equal to or higher than the one shown. A low value declared as such beats a false zero.
Composition sources: Ciqual 2025, ANSES (Licence Ouverte / Open Licence (Etalab)) et FAO/INFOODS, Afrique de l’Ouest (2019) (FAO, CC BY-NC-SA).
This composition qualifies as: Low fat · Low saturated fat · Low salt.
Wordings authorised by Regulation (EU) No 432/2012; thresholds from Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.
One point about these figures. The dried hibiscus calyces do not appear in it, and that is not an oversight: neither Ciqual nor the FAO West African reference gives their composition. Rather than put forward an invented figure, we prefer to say that these 20 g are not counted — bearing in mind that they are removed after steeping and that only a small part of their content passes into the syrup. The cinnamon, negligible, is not counted either.
Frequently asked questions
My pears are pink, not red. Why?
Two possible causes: they did not cool in their syrup, or the syrup was not concentrated enough in hibiscus. Twenty grams per half-litre is a minimum; go up to thirty if you want a deeper shade.
The syrup is bitter, what can I do?
The steeping was too long or too hot. You can rescue it with a spoonful of honey and a dash of lemon, but the real answer is upstream: ten minutes off the heat, never a prolonged boil on the calyces.
Can I use shop hibiscus tea bags?
Yes, but you will need a lot of them and the result will be paler: those bags often contain hibiscus blended with other plants, and finely ground. Whole calyces give a far denser colour.
Is this dessert suitable for children?
Yes, without reservation: no alcohol, no lactose, no gluten. Simply halve the ginger, whose heat sometimes surprises younger palates.
The products in this recipe
What to serve alongside, or try next
- Cashew chicken with ginger and sesame — the dish that calls for this dessert, and the same bag of cashews.
- 3 refreshing drink recipes with organic hibiscus flowers — including traditional bissap.
- Organic fonio: 5 recipes for 5 uses — the coconut milk dessert goes well with this syrup.
