Before anything, let me tell you, this is my first time trying persimmons (the fruit that is orange in color and looks like tomatoes) and they are so good. One of our guests got these little treats from their garden and I just can't thank them enough! Unsure about the taste, I just let the fruits sit on my kitchen counter-top for almost a week, when I finally decided to make cookies with them (after a lot of reading & research).
There are two varieties of the persimmons - fuyu & hachiya. Fuyu are the look alike of tomatoes, short & squat, can be eaten fresh (as is). Hachiyas are longer and pear-shaped, and they can be eaten only when they are completely ripe. If you eat unripe hachiyas, you are probably in for some unforgettable experience (not in a good sense though)!
Only when making cookies, I tasted the "fuyu" variety and I must say, was pleasantly surprised with its taste & texture. The fruits were completely ripe (the outer was firm but gave in when pressed), firm & soft on the inside with an enjoyably sweeter taste. I knew I was going to bake some darn good cookies and I was right!!
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While baking, the cookies didn't spread much as much as I would have liked it to. So, you are pretty much stuck with whatever shape that you are scooping out onto the baking sheet. But, the cookies were moist, sticky, soft & wonderful! I thought they would crisp up after cooling but I was wrong. They got even softer & stickier the following day. But, hands down, these cookies were so darn delicious and my kids went heads over heels for them!!
Basic Info
Complexity - MediumPrep time - 20 mins
Cook time - 20 mins
Serves - 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients
All-purpose flour - 1 cup
Oats (old-fashioned quaker oats) - 1 cup
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Ginger powder - 1 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup, at room temperature
Granulated sugar - 1 cup minus 2 tbsp
Persimmon pulp - 1.25 cups (scooped from 2 persimmons & blended to pulpy consistency)
Honey
- 1 tbspVanilla extract - 1 tsp
Choco chips - 1/2 cup
Method
Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
Use a food processor / mixer and pulse oats into fine powder.
In a big bowl, combine all-purpose flour, oats flour, baking soda, salt, ginger powder, cardamom powder until uniformly mixed. Keep the dry ingredients aside until use.
In another bowl, cream butter & sugar until soft & fluffy. To this, add persimmon pulp, honey, vanilla extract and give a good mix.
To this wet mixture, add dry ingredients and fold in just until combined. Finally, add choco chips and fold them gently into the cookie dough.
Grease a cookie pan with some butter, scoop about a tbsp of dough onto the cookie sheet. If you think the dough is a little loose, refrigerate for about 15 mins before you proceed with the baking. Gently flatten the cookies with a fork (dipped in all-purpose flour) and bake for about 14-15 mins until the top & the edges starts to brown. Remove and cool them in the racks for atleast 15 mins.
Devour & enjoy!!
Variations
- You can skip oats flour and use only all-purpose flour.
- Replace choco chips with walnuts (any type of nuts) or raisins (or any dried fruits).
- Replace ginger powder & cardamom powder with 1 tsp of cinnamon powder, 1/2 tsp of clove powder, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg powder.