Trying to re-create Chinese deep-fryed brown sugar-flour flowers
One possibility is that the too brittle end result might be related to the fact that the dough was too flaky when originally mixed.  Making the dough bind together better seems like it would help with the problem of brittleness.  I think the problem might be when you're mixing the oil - it may be that other recipes don't use oil for this very reason... which doesn't mean it isn't possible to make the recipe with oil, just that it might be trickier.

In your recipe, it looks like you're adding the sugar syrup, flour, and oil at the same time, and mixing.  The oil will coat the flour, and prevent gluten from forming (giving a consistency that is tender, not chewy).  Given that this seems to be working too well in your dough, you might double check your proportions - a little less oil and a little more water might fix the problem.  

If you are very sure of the ratios of ingredients, perhaps you might mix the sugar syrup in first, work the dough a bit, and slowly add the oil in second.  This might give your dough a chance to develop some binding, and give the dough a little binding, before the oil coats the dough and prevents more.  Or, depending on how wet the dough is, mix part of the flour with the syrup, and part with the oil, then mix the two parts of the dough very well.  Again, this should let some gluten form to bond your dough together, but avoid any trouble working with a dough that has only half the liquid it needs.

The only other idea I had that might help would be that your flowers are loosing a little too much moisture during frying.  Frying longer at a lower temperature might work (a bit) to not evaporate quite as much out of the dough, but obviously you've hit a limit.  You might instead fry at a higher temperature, but for less time (so there's less time for moisture to escape), or possibly cut your flowers a little thicker so they will not dry out too much and become brittle while frying.