Recipe: Top these spicy treats with orange icing
Orange icing tops these old-fashioned spiced cookies made with super-ripe persimmon pulp. Debbie Arrington
With ripe persimmons come persimmon cookies.
Off the tree, my Fuyus are quickly turning into sacks of jelly. That super-ripe pulp is perfect for making these old-fashioned drop cookies.
Angostura bitters intensifies the orange color of the dough as well as the fall flavors. The subtle icing tastes like orange but looks pale by comparison.
These cake-like treats can be served without icing or just a dusting of powdered sugar, too. Got lots of persimmon pulp? Make a double batch of cookies and keep some for later; these cookies freeze well.
Persimmon cookies with orange icing
Makes 3 dozen
Ingredients:
1 cup persimmon pulp, pureed
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
¼ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon Angostura bitters
1 cup raisins
For icing:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Scoop pulp out of persimmon and mash or puree. Stir in baking soda; set aside.
Sift together flour, salt and spices. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter, shortening and sugar. Beat in egg until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and bitters.
Add persimmon pulp mixture to butter-sugar mixture. Stir in dry ingredients until just blended.
Rinse raisins with hot water. Drain well. Add to cookie dough.
Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper. By rounded spoonful using two teaspoons, drop dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, allowing 2 inches of space between each cookie.
Bake in a 350-degree oven until golden brown on top, but still springy to the touch, about 13 to 14 minutes.
While cookies are baking, make icing: Melt butter. Add orange juice. Stir in sifted powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Add a few drops more orange juice if needed.
Remove from the oven and let cool. Top with icing. Store in a covered, air-tight container.
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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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