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These tasty November treats span generations

Recipe: Old-fashion persimmon cookies like great-grandma used to make

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED NOV 4, 2018

Glazed persimmon cookies can be made with either Hachiya or Fuyu persimmons. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

Persimmon season brings cookie time to our household.

For generations, my family has made these simple old-fashioned persimmon cookies every November, usually relying on Great-Grandmother's tried-and-true recipe.

Originally, these cakelike confections were made with native American persimmons, which grow wild throughout the South and Midwest. For the last century, we've baked them with milder Japanese varieties, found throughout California.

Either the pointy Hachiya or the flat Fuyu will work. The key is to wait until the persimmon is fully ripe, its pulp totally soft and mushy. When ready, the fruit feels like a sack full of jelly. It takes naturally crisp Fuyu persimmons longer to reach full mushy ripeness, but they will get there.

Can't wait? Put the persimmons in the freezer. Once it's solid, remove the fruit and let it thaw. The pulp will be completely soft.

This year, our Fuyu persimmon tree is covered with fruit, at least 80 to 100 pounds. Two persimmons produces 1 cup pulp, which is enough for a batch of four dozen cookies.

It looks like I'll be making a lot of persimmon cookies this month. Great-Grandmother would be proud.

Great-Grandmother's persimmon cookies

Two persimmons make about 1 cup pulp, enough to make
four dozen cookies.

Makes about 4 dozen

1 cup very ripe persimmon pulp
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Peel and mash persimmon pulp. Dissolve baking soda in pulp. Set aside. Rinse raisins with boiling water. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together honey and shortening. Beat in egg, then fold in persimmon pulp and raisins.

Sift together flour, spices, salt and baking powder. Add flour mixture to persimmon mixture. Stir until well blended.

Drop batter by teaspoons in scoops the size of a walnut onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden. Cookies will still have cakelike spring when done.

Bits of persimmon peek out of the baked cookies.

Cool. Glaze or ice as desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar or serve plain.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes recipe gardening Sacramento Fuyu Hachiya cookies fall fruit tree fruit persimmons baking produce management

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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