Cookies for the Holidays: Persimmon Cookies

[ecowper]

it's my grandmother's recipe. She grew up on a small dairy farm in Central California and learned to cook from my great grandmother, who was from Missouri. The intersection of southern and california cuisine is what I grew up with as a kid and love to this day. This particular recipe, the sight, smell, and taste, takes me back to Central California in the early 1970's, which was an amazing place to grow up.

Without further ado!

Ingredients

• 3 Fuyu persimmons, peeled, core removed, and pulped. Should be about 1 cup of pulp. Use a food processor to make your life easy
• 1 cup chopped nuts - walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts .... or mix all three
• 1 cup dried currants - don't use raisins unless you just can't get the currants
• 1 cup white table sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter at room temp (not melted, just soft)
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F (180C)
2. Combine persimmons, nuts, currants, sugar, and egg in a large bowl until well mixed together
3. Add butter and mix with hand mixer or stand mixer until liquid is well incorporated and nuts/currants are distributed evenly
4. Add dry ingredients and mix until you have a smooth cookie dough. Add a TBSP or 2 of water if dough is too thick.
5. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet in roughly heaping tbsp amounts.
6. Cook for 15 minutes .... they are done when a toothpick comes out cleanly and they easily release from the cookie sheet
7. Eat 'em like you're the Cookie Monster

[mrteddyprincess]

My great-grandma had a persimmon tree growing in her backyard (Central Indiana). She lived 1898-1984. She processed them herself and always made persimmon pudding in the fall. I don't have a persimmon tree, but I buy persimmon pulp from a local orchard. My daughter and I make persimmon pudding every Thanksgiving. Wouldn't have it any other way!

[Jim White]

Oh my. And we’ve eaten all of this year’s persimmon crop. Bookmarked for next year, thanks!

[Dadof3Illinois]

We have several persimmon trees around this area and the deer absolutely love them….it’s like candy to them. But for me…..nope…nada…not gonna eat them…ha. Just never took a liking to persimmon bars, cake or cookies.
As kids we would dare each other to eat one that was unripe….wow….talk about tannic!!!!

[ecowper]

we had persimmon trees as a kid, too. One fall day, I was out picking some for mom to bake with. I was up in the tree, which happened to be a pasture that adjoined the neighbor's pasture and there was no fence between them. I did not realize they had moved their bull into that pasture. I was up in the tree (at the age of 8 or so) when the bull came to see what I was doing. He ate all the persimmons while I stayed as far up the tree as I could get

[ecowper]

Edit: updated a few things based on making them in 2025 … if you’ve saved the recipe in Paprika, you may want to update also