Persimmon Cookies

Plink! Plink! Plink! I can hear the rain falling outside my living room window. What started out as a soft pitter-patter is now a full fledge symphony of raindrops hitting the glass and street. The air outside smells so earthy and clean. I think it's called petrichor...the scent that is, I read that somewhere once. I don't remember where. Anyhow, inside my cozy cottage, it still smells spicy...almost autumnal, from the persimmon cookies I baked this week. The aroma has been lingering, enveloping me each time I walk into the cottage. I don't mind, it's kind of a comforting smell.

My friend Dawn gave me a large sack of persimmons about a month ago. She had a tree that was overflowing with a bounty of persimmons according to her. Her generosity was much appreciated. I've slowly been using them up in various recipes as the mood strikes. I even puréed some and froze it, to be used in upcoming baked goods. One of the persimmon recipes I've made during my "Persimmon-fest" was a cookie recipe from a book that I had laying around called, Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook. If memory serves me correctly, I won it in a contest a few years ago. The recipe itself is simple enough and uses common spices that most of us have in our cupboard. So far everyone I gave some cookies to has enjoyed them immensely. The recipe called for Hachiya persimmons which I find a bit astringent in taste, I used Fuyu persimmons (the flat bottomed, squat ones).  I also subbed in pecans for the walnuts but other than that I followed the recipe as printed. The cookies have a subtle sweet persimmon taste which is balanced by the tartness from the dried cranberries. They're also more cakey than crunchy, so if you enjoy cookies of the cakey nature these will be right up your alley.

Enjoy and stay warm!

Persimmon Cookies (slightly adapted from Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups Fuyu persimmon pulp (roughly 2-3 soft persimmons)
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup pecans, chopped fine
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two baking sheets or line with Silpat.

2. Remove the stems and seeds of the persimmons, cut in chunks (no need to peel) and purée in a food processor until it's smooth.  * Be sure to use soft persimmons.

3. Cream the butter and both sugars until it's nice and creamy. Add in the orange zest, egg, vanilla and puréed persimmons. Mix well. Then add in the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Mix well. Finally, add in your pecans and dried cranberries. Then guess what? You got it- mix well (also scrape down the sides of the bowl so that all the flour, etc. gets incorporated).

4. Drop the dough on your prepared cookie sheets. Roughly two tablespoons worth. The dough will be soft and kind of sticky, that's ok.

5. Bake for 15-25 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. Mine took about 17 minutes.

6. Remove from oven. Allow to cool. Serve.

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Rosemary Plum Jam

Only a week into December and it's freezing! (Ok, by California standards) I hope despite the chilly weather, you've been able to get out and enjoy yourselves. Post-Thanksgiving, Mr.S and I took Kidlet #1 to the San Francisco International Auto Show at the Moscone Center. (Thanks for the tickets Grace and Lawrence!) Kidlet #1 loves sports cars, so he and his dad were gawking at all the cool rides and talking a bunch of auto gibberish that I couldn't comprehend. (I'm used to this, as they engage in the same car nerd talk when we watch Top Gear or Fast 'n Loud.) I'm not that into car shows but I did have a nice time perusing all the new vehicles (the modified street vehicles were my favorite) and afterwards we went to Japantown, where I stocked up on Japanese sundries and snacks at Nijiya Market and Ichiban Kan. Mr.S and Kidlet #1 were also very patient while I spent an inordinate amount of time perusing the aisles of kitchen gadgets at Daiso. As a trade-off, I didn't grouse when they begged to grab dinner at Fisherman's Wharf.

Here's a few photos from the car show:

 BLOX Racing- S2000

 



Nissan GTR R35 Titanium Premium Launch

Modified cars w/ hardwood floors in their trunks

Porsche 911, 50 Yrs Edition

Lexus LFA

Audi R8 V10

Ferrari 458 Italia

 Ferrari Testarossa

The "James Bond" Car, 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Coupe

For some reason the SF trip spurred a cookie baking kick in me (maybe it was all the cute baking stuff at Daiso?) and I baked a TON of cookies the following week in the cottage's kitchen. Additionally, I chose to break in a cute tea towel  that a friend gave me as a birthday gift earlier this year. The tea towel is screen printed with a short poem by William Carlos Williams called, "This is Just to Say." I love plums and seeing that poem made me crave some juicy, ripe summer plums. Unfortunately, it's December so I was a bit SOL; however, I remembered that I had made a big batch of delicious rosemary plum jam this summer. I gave a lot of it away but I had a few jars still squirreled away in the cupboard. So in addition to the various other cookies I made, I also whipped up some fresh thumbprint cookies with homemade rosemary plum jam. Mmmm!

Photo Source

My thumbprint cookies have always been a crowd favorite - they're the perfect blend of savory and sweet. The trick is - I use Alice Water's sweet tart dough recipe paired with one of my own jams...strawberry balsamic, ginger peach, blackberry lime, etc. The rosemary plum is my favorite though. Plus it's super easy to make- I use a standard recipe for plum jam and just add in some fresh rosemary.

Rosemary-Plum Jam

Ingredients

3 lbs. fresh plums
a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary
7 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 pouch liquid pectin

Instructions

1. Wash your fruit, cut in half, twist and remove pit. Chop. Place in food processor.

2. Wash rosemary. Remove needles from stem. Discard stem. Chop. Place chopped needles in with plums.

3. Give the processor a good pulse/chop or two. You want the processor to crush the fruit mixture (but not puree it). Alternately, if you're not too fussy - you can chop the plums finely with a kitchen knife and call it a day. It'll cook down.

5. Pour rosemary-plum mixture into a large heavy bottomed pot.  Add lemon juice then sugar. Place on high heat and bring to a full rolling boil boil. Stir constantly while the softened fruit and sugar meld.

6. When it gets to be a full rolling boil (rolling boil-= boiling so hard it can't be stirred down, it keeps bubbling), add the pectin in quickly. Keep stirring the entire time.

7.  Return to full rolling boil for exactly 1 minute. Check to see if the jam has set. If it has, remove it from the heat. Skim off any foam.

8. Ladle the jam (while it's still hot) into hot, sterilized half-pint jars. Leave a 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, secure the lids and finger tighten the rings. Then follow the procedure for processing in a hot water bath.

PS This jam is also amazing when paired with roast pork.

How to sterilize jars and lids
How to hot water bath/can your jam

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'Murphy's Law' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you ever started a project, only to find out midway through that you lack the proper tools or ingredients and that your mind's going in 20 million different directions? Yesterday was like that for me. I was super exhausted and having an unbelievable jones for some chocolate. In all my bright wisdom, I decided to start a batch of chocolate chip cookies without checking first to see if I had everything I needed (completely unlike me). After I mixed the "wet" ingredients in with the "dry" goods I noticed that the batter wasn't smoothing out and it looked drier than the Sahara. A few more flicks of the spoon and the light bulb went on above my head. I realized I had completely omitted the butter! Not having any butter ready at room temperature, I unwrapped two sticks of butter, popped them in some Pyrex and microwaved them at 2 minutes. What I got was a Pyrex measuring cup full of liquidy butter. At this point there was no turning back, I poured the goop into the bowl and stirred...and stirred. Surprisingly, it was looking pretty good. Time to add the chips. Turned out I only had half a bag of chips in the freezer, so I compensated by throwing in a handful of slivered almonds. At this point, I'm sure all my baking savvy friends are slapping their face "Home Alone" style and are trying to contain how appalled they are; but I'll be honest, despite all the issues the cookies turned out phe-nomenal! Probably one of the best batches I've ever made. Who'd have thought?

Here's the link to the original cookie recipe: Toll House Cookies

Here's my version:

Murphy's Law Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) sweet cream butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

3/4 cup sliced almonds


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375° F.
 
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. 

3. Beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract and eggs in large mixer bowl until creamy. 

4. Place two sticks of butter in a microwave-safe container. Microwave for 2 minutes.

5. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

6. Pour butter into bowl and mix throughly with other ingredients.

7. Stir in morsels and nuts. 

8. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto baking sheets sprayed with PAM.
 
9. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown ( I went 12 minutes in my oven). 

10. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; use a spatula to remove.

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PMS Cookies : Double Chocolate M&M Cookies

PMS always seems to sneak up on me like a mugger in the night. One minute I'm laughing with my friends, sipping a cup of coffee and cuddling up to Mr. S. Then WHAMM-O! The next minute I'm sobbing into a pillow while watching a Hallmark commercial, inhaling an entire bag of Kettle Chips and glaring daggers because someone drank the last Pepsi. We've all been there. There's no way to avoid the emotional roller coaster of PMS but there are ways to subdue the beast. My "neutralizer" has always been chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate! Dark, decadent and creamy...it's like a magical elixir that smoothes things over. So next time your hormones are acting all 5150, you could just scarf down an entire Costco box of Hershey bars OR you could treat yourself to a batch of delicious Double Chocolate M&M cookies. Couple it with a glass of red wine and a couple of episodes of Glee and you'll be ok in no time.

*(Guys, if you're smart you'll have a batch of these cookies waiting on the counter every 28 days. Just sayin'.)

Mel's Kitchen Cafe Double Chocolate M&M Cookies
*Makes between 2 and 3 dozen cookies (depending on how big you make them)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into eight pieces
3/4 cup M&M’s
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, place the chopped chocolate and the butter. Microwave for one minute at 50% power. Stir. Microwave again for one minute at 50% power and stir well. If the chocolate is not fully melted, continue microwaving in 30 second intervals at 50% power until the chocolate and butter are well combined (don't overheat the chocolate or it can seize and turn hard and unusable). Let the mixture cool slightly, about 2-3 minutes until it is at room temperature or just slightly warm (but not hot).
- In a large bowl (or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer), combine the chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until combined. Gradually mix in flour mixture on low speed. Fold in M&M’s with a wooden spoon (don't use a mixer as the M&M's will break into pieces and not stay whole).
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper, silpat liners or lightly grease them with cooking spray. Drop dough onto baking sheets by tablespoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop) spacing them about 1 1/2 inches apart. If desired, place five or six M&M's on top of the cookie dough balls (even perched slightly on the rounded sides). Bake the cookies until they have slightly flattened and there are a few cracks on the surface, about 13-14 minutes.
- The cookies will still be soft. Let the cookies sit for 2-3 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. These cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container for about 2 days. I freeze them between sheets of wax paper in a large tupperware container and they defrost beautifully at room temperature or for a few seconds in the microwave.

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