Studded with nuts and kissed with a persimmon and orange glaze, this persimmon cookie recipe is irresistible.
These persimmon cookies are cake-y and filled with walnuts and dried sweetened cranberries.
I’ve topped them with a sugar glaze that includes persimmon puree and tangy orange zest.
Elise Bauer
What bang out of persimmon are the best to use for making cookies?
The Difference Between Fuyu and Hachiya Persimmons
Fuyu persimmons are short and squat.
You eat them like apples, peeling them and slicing them.
Acorn-shaped Hachiya persimmons.Elise Bauer
They are meant to be firm.
Hachiya persimmons need to be completely ripe before you could eat them.
Unripe hachiyas are extremely astringent and will make your mouth pucker if you give a shot to eat them.
Hachiya persimmons are squishy soft when ripe.Elise Bauer
That’s when the persimmon is ready to eat!
Cut it open from the top and use a spoon to scoop out the sweet pulp inside.
For Fuyu persimmons, you’ll want to use very ripe (no longer crunchy) persimmons.
Elise Bauer
Peel them, chop them, remove any seeds, and process the chopped persimmons in a food processor.
Freezing Persimmon Pulp
Can you freeze persimmon pulp?
In fact freezing the pulp is a great way to save the puree for making cookies all year long.
Photos and recipe updated December 7, 2017, first published 2005.
Their fruits are much smaller than species grown commercially, sized somewhere between a date and a gold ball.
Get to them quickly, as woodland critters love them and the squishy fruit are easily damaged.
Rinse them well to free them of dirt, then use your hands to pluck out the pulp-covered seeds.
The skins on these persimmons are so thin there’s no need to peel them.
Just take the seed-free pulp and puree it.
Use a spoon to scoop out the pulp.
Discard any seeds that might be there.
Each Hachiya persimmon should yield anywhere from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of pulp.
This recipe also works with the seeded pulp of native American persimmons (Diospyros virginiana).
If using native persimmons, there’s no need to remove the skins.
Stir in 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
Beat together the butter and sugars in a large bowl.
Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
Mix in the persimmon puree and orange zest.
Add dry ingredients to persimmon mixture a third at a time, stirring just until flour is incorporated.
Stir in nuts and dried fruit.
Chill the dough for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Bake until cookies are browned around the edges and spring back when lightly touched in center, 15-18 minutes.
Let cool on baking racks before frosting.
Add 1 tablespoon of persimmon puree and 1 teaspoon of orange zest and mix until smooth.
If the glaze is too thick to be spoonable, whisk in a little more orange juice.
Dip a spoon into glaze mixture and dribble over cookies.
Let harden before serving.
