Persimmon cookies revive my flagging spirits

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Jan 11th 2008 @ 2:34PM

a couple of persimmons holding up a recipe card for persimmon cookies

It's the end of the week, and I'm feeling sort of creatively tapped out. My energy to try out new recipes is depleted and all I really want to do is crawl over to my couch with a bowl of popcorn (tossed with a little Bragg's liquid aminos) and watch the the Dr. Who DVD that arrived yesterday in the mail.

In a last-ditch effort to rewhet my culinary curiosity I picked up my grandmother's recipe box and started to flip through it, hoping for some inspiration. The card you see above grabbed my interest and the signs of gustatory exhaustion started to fade. You see, last Monday, as I was wandering through the aisles of Reading Terminal Market, the persimmons caught my eye. Even though they are decidedly not local, they called out, asking me buy some and bring them home. I remember frequently seeing persimmons on my grandma Bunny's kitchen counter when I was a kid and I still conjure the tactile memory of how they felt when they were good and ripe.

So I have some persimmons and a recipe to go along with them, and the world doesn't seem so bleak. Dr. Who will just have to wait until I'm finished baking.

So now

Persimmons(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Persimmon Cookies
from Regina Childers, via my grandmother's recipe box

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup persimmon pulp
1 egg (Regina used 2)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
raisins and nuts optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in egg(s), vanilla and persimmon pulp. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix to combine. Add to wet ingredients and mix until incorporated. Add raisins or nuts (if using) and then bake on cookie sheet until light brown (10-12 minutes).

Filed Under: Ingredients, Methods
Tags: baking, cookies, dessert, Dr. Who, fruit, Persimmons, recipes, vintage cooking

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-13-2008 @3:32PM Tina said... Well I don't think this will be any help to anyone, but we used to have a persimmon tree in our backyard, no one ever ate them except for our dog who absolutely loved them, and the old lady down the street would come by and take a bag full everynow and then and bake them into cookies, which is the only way my sisters and brother would would eat them. And I do believe they need to be soft to use.
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1-12-2008 @1:20PM lauren said... how many persimmons is a cup of pulp? about two-three?
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1-15-2008 @2:06PM U said... How does one ripen a persimmon? I went out and bought some this weekend to give this recipe a try, because I've never had persimmons before, but the four I purchased are hard as rocks, and I couldn't find any that seemed to be more ripened...do they become more flavorful as they ripen?
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