Persimmon Ginger Holiday Cookies
Note: This recipe was submitted by Diana Johnson to the Four Seasons Hotel Seattle's Ultimate Holiday Cookie Contest. When I imagine holiday cookies I think of soft, chewy, and delightfully spicy persimmon cookies. As a small child in North Carolina we had a bounty of persimmon trees in our back yards. I would pretend to be a pioneer who only had the food I could gather to eat. I'd collect as many persimmons as I could and scoop out their flesh. I'd eat it until I was a sticky mess, and we would puree the rest and freeze it. A couple weeks later we would use the puree to make cookies and we'd give them out when we Christmas caroled friends and neighbors. I don't know the exact recipe we used, but I've recently created my own version that brings back so many fun childhood memories. I can't wait to pass it along to my children one day.
Total Steps
8
Ingredients
15
Tools Needed
7
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg egg
- 2 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoon heaping finely chopped crystallized ginger
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup persimmon puree
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Step 2
Cream shortening and sugar together.
Step 3
Add egg and mix well.
Step 4
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Step 5
Sift the dry ingredient mixture into the creamed sugar mixture and mix well.
Step 6
Add chopped ginger, walnuts, vanilla extract, and persimmon puree. Mix until smooth. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Step 7
Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the tops are just turning golden. The cookies should have a cake or muffin-like texture.
Step 8
Dust the cooled cookies with powdered sugar. Alternatively, use them to make ice cream sandwiches with pumpkin pie ice cream.