Persimmon Cake

my dad's persimmon tree is blowing up! i can't eat enough to catch up, so i thought i could experiment with some recipes.

In my hunt for a persimmon recipe, everywhere I looked referred to the david lebovitz persimmon bread recipe.

I decided on this one. simple and I have all of the ingredients

well...I'm still getting used to this convection toaster oven. At an hour, i checked the cake with a toothpick and removed it. yes...its a little darker on top than i expected. After 15 minutes it fell a little, but it still looked like things were gonna turn out okay.

i was worried it was overdone. boy howdy was i wrong. Although the toothpick came out clean, the inside was like a bread pudding. Like a delicious persimmon pudding cake

The flavor was awesome. i don't think i'd want it coming out "right".

I did change the recipe a bit. i hand mixed things so that may change how things mixed together. I also used less nutmeg than the recipe called for. The persimmons are really over ripe...so much that i just scooped out the meat and smooshed it between my latex gloved hands instead of actually pureeing them. And probably the biggest deal - i forgot to add the baking soda. I had so many recipes open on my surface that i think i just looked at another page, forgot, and never looked back.

here's the recipe as I made it, adapted from homestead-honey.com

Ingredients

1 Stick (8 Tbsp) Butter at room temperature

1 3/4 Cup baking sugar

2 Cups Persimmon Puree  - or in my case, just over two cups of persimmons smooshed between my fingers.

1 1/2 Cup whole Milk

2-Eggs 

2 Cups Flour 

1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/8tsp Nutmeg

To Make the Persimmon Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F, grease and flour an 8 inch baking dish
2. mix butter and sugar with a wooden spoon and well as possible.
3. Add in eggs, milk, and persimmon puree, and gently combine until smooth and creamy
4. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg)
5. Gradually blend the dry mixture into the persimmon mixture
6. Spoon into the prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
7. Allow to cool slightly, and serve warm or cold.

cookies - chocolate chip

Round two of trying out the new countertop convection oven.

I forget how glorious a homemade fresh baked chocolate chip cookie is until i have one. Then i feel like banging my head on the wall wondering why oh why did i veer from this delight for so long.

i went with a tried and true recipe. Thank you Martha. I realize that the Martha Stewart soft and chewy recipe is essentially the toll house recipe minus the nuts, but I don't include nuts in my cookies anyway.

I didn't even take out my hand mixer. I went old school and mixed the batch by hand in a stainless steel bowl with a wooden spoon. Nothing complicated about it and people have been baking long before kitchenaid existed. Don't get me wrong. I love my stand mixer and hand mixer. And i will use them forever. But i'm not fully unpacked from the move and my kitchen isn't really done so i have to go sans electricity on the prep of this.

I baked a few batches - between 8-9 minutes. 8 minutes was still gooey in the middle. 9 was crispy but had that delicious brown butter flavor.

I love the cookie base on this. I need to try some additions though. I'm thinking of adding some coconut next time. 

Martha Stewart Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) room temperature unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed golden brown sugar
• 1 t salt
• 2 t vanilla ( as always, i am heavy handed with the vanilla)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12 oz) chocolate chips (just dump the bag in)

cookies - coconut macaroons

I love this recipe. It's been a staple at my house for atleast 10 years. I'm gonna guess longer, but who knows.

My husband doesn't like coconut, so I don't always get a chance to make them for just "house eating" cookies, but they make an appearance every year around christmas.

I made them as the inaugural baked good at our new house. Mostly because they're super simple, don't require any appliances, and joe's out of town for work, so i can eat 'em by myself and take some to the family tomorrow.

This is really a test for the mini convection oven I got from joe for christmas, and as a gift for our wedding..yes, we got it as a gift, joe didn't realize it, and bought me another one for christmas. Bed bath and beyond is so wonderful for when things like this happen. They gladly take one back and give us a gift card.

preheat oven to 350

Ingredients:

1 14 oz bag sweetened shredded coconut
2/3 cup flour
1-2 T vanilla (i'm ALWAYS heavy handed with the vanilla)
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
pinch + salt

1. combine flour and salt in medium bowl
2. add coconut, toss to coat
3. stir in vanilla and condensed milk until well combined
4. place golf ball sized rounds on lined cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. These don't spread, but you don't want them to steam too close to one another. I like the crisp outside with the chewy insides.  (I recommend using a cookie dough scoop for this process. it makes things worlds easier. I don't know where mine is right now and tried to do this by hand. It was a sticky mess. Not difficult to clean up, but they are definitely not precise and the cooking cannot really be measured accurately because of this.)
5. bake for 20 minutes. They should start getting dark around the edges and top. Delicious carmelized coconut bits.
6. Let cool and enjoy

**okay - so the batch in the picture was balled by hand. That was the sticky mess i refer to in step 4. I also tried the "just scrape off a spoon with a rubber spatula" method. They were bigger, and not ball shaped at all. But it turns out they are just as delicious. There is more surface area and less precise rounding making for more crispy goodness in all the nooks and crannies. Everything cooked wonderfully in 20 minutes.