November ABC challenge: Persimmon Muffins

 This month's challenge was color.  I'm not sure I achieved it, but I tried.  Persimmons have a deep orange color that definitely warms up the color of the muffins.  The seed envelopes, which are a brighter orange color and showed up well in the raw batter, however, turned darker during baking, so are not visible.  But don't count out the bits of cranberry!

I love these muffins -- I've made them several times.  As I recall, the first time I made them I misread the quantity of persimmon pulp and used twice as much, but otherwise followed the recipe.  The results were dense and rich and chewy and incredibly delicious.  Since then, I have always included extra pulp (until today), but I've tinkered with the rest of the recipe considerably.  I really have to question the amount of sugar and butter in the original and whether I ever followed that instruction.  It's a lot!  Regardless, this is a great recipe no matter how it's done!  One of my favorites.

The recipe calls for 18 muffins, but I made 12.  My changes are in italics and strike out.  Here's what I used:

1 cup persimmon puree (preferably Hachiya)

1 1¹/₂ teaspoon baking soda

12 4 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature

1¼ 1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons molasses 

2 eggs

1¹/₃ cup all-purpose flour (3/4 cup white, remainder whole wheat)

1/2 3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Zest of one orange

1 cup walnut pieces

3/4 cup currants dried, sweetened cranberries

Heat oven to 325 degrees and grease muffin tins.  In a small bowl, mix the persimmon puree with the baking soda; set aside.  In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until mixture is creamy and smooth.  Add eggs and beat well.  Sift together the flours, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.  Add to the butter, along with the persimmon, and beat until well blended.  Beat in the vanilla, almond extract, lemon juice, and zest until combined, then stir in walnuts and cranberries.  Fill each muffin cup and bake 45 minutes, or until a wood pick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a muffin. Remove from the muffin pans and let cool on racks.

I had to use vinegar in place of lemon juice, but that wouldn't have affected anything.  And I didn't have orange zest, so I used 1/4 teaspoon orange extract, which I couldn't detect.  (I didn't bother to check substitution rates for extract to zest -- it probably is at least 1/2 teaspoon to one orange.  I was going for just a hint of orange.)  I used two defrosted persimmons that have been in my freezer for two years, unwrapped.  They turned into a liquid pool once they defrosted -- shapeless, deflated lumps of pulp in a sweet syrup.  I used only the pulp, but I lost flavor and sweetness by excluding the juice.  I probably should have added it, since it was original to the fruit, but the pulp was already so wet.

The batter is quite light and fluffy and seems like it would rise into stable, tall muffins, but actually they always come out flat-topped and looking a bit melted.  I overfilled the tins, which created a crispy/chewy ring where it overflowed -- delicious!  This time I had some trouble getting them out.  I had to break a piece of the outer ring off so I could get a knife down and pry them out.

Conclusion:  These are indescribably delicious, especially warm out of the oven.  As prepared, they are plenty sweet, and buttery enough to leave your fingers a little oily.  If made per the original recipe, I think they should probably be served warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream!

Original recipe:  "Persimmon Muffins" via The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham

Spiced Butter Cookies: fall leaves

 It's good to have a dependable, delicious butter cookie.  Slightly spicier and a little sweeter than this version, these are lightly spiced and perfect for this time of year.

1¹/₄ cups sugar

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 egg 

3 tablespoons dark corn syrup or molasses 

1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour

1¹/₂ teaspoons baking soda 

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon ground ginger 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Combine sugar and butter in large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (1 to 2 minutes). Add egg, molasses, and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes). Reduce speed to low; add all remaining ingredient. Beat until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes). Divide dough into thirds, flatten into discs ½-inch thick and refrigerate until firm (1 to 2 hours) or up to three days.

Heat oven to 375F. Allow dough to soften slightly, then roll out on lightly floured surface to ⅛-inch thick. Cut with a 3 to 4-inch cookie cutter. Place one inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until set. Let stand one minute, then remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely.

 

In order to get the 6 dozen this recipe can yield,  you really do have to roll the dough quite thinly as directed and use the correct size cutter.  Rolled as directed, it makes very thin cookies.  The issue with that is that it's so easy to overbake them.  This cookie has a very delicate buttery flavor with light spices; they are still delicious when browned, but taste more like graham crackers.  They lose much of the delicate flavoring because the toastiness overwhelms it.  I'd be inclined to roll them slightly thicker (mindful of the fact that they're more likely to lose fine definition) so there's less chance of overbaking.  I checked the larger leaves at 5 minutes and they didn't seem as firm as I wanted.  I left them about another minute or so, and they were slightly overdone.  The small ones were still soft at 3 minutes but just about perfect at 4+.  (They might have benefited from using an airbake pan to reduce crisping.)

Conclusion:  Buttery, sweet, with delicate spices.  This is a great basic recipe and makes nice cutout cookies. 

Recipe:  "Twinkling Ginger Stars" via Land O Lakes butter