day # 2 twofer tuesday-persimmons!

my love affair with persimmons arrived a little late in my life. i've lived in south central IN for about a decade now and fought trying this little fruit for years. technically the persimmon is a berry, you can read all about it hizzere. i've posted over and over about persimmon pudding, and to my knowledge, i'm the first hit that comes up if you happen to be googling for a great vegan persimmon pudding recipe. but this entry ain't about me, it's about my love for the PPK.

it wouldn't be right to participate in a month long vegan food blogging event without giving some propers to a couple of great vegan chefs: isa chandra moskowitz and tamasin noyes. in the photo above is my creation called the persimmon softie which is an homage to isa and terry's applesauce softies from vegan cookies invade your cookie jar.

one bite, and you'll turn into a great big ol' maple tree with purdy orange leaves. this cookie screams, "yoo hoo! i'm a ginormous bite of autumn!" persimmons tend to turn dark when baked, so don't let the chocolate appearance fool you. this is a blissfully cinnamony bundle of goodness. i threw some vegan white chocolate chips and pecans to really make these babies rock. i'm always thinking about accompanying beverages with my food. these cookies would go perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. i'd stay away from sweetening your drink because the cookies compliment an unsweetened beverage ever so nicely. if you are a sugar junkie, i'd go with a chai latte.

the recipe for the persimmon softies is simple: i'm not ashamed to say i hijacked the basic elements of the cookie recipe when it came to the flour/baking soda/salt measurements, because i'm kind of inept when it comes to the chemistry of cooking. NOTE--there's a big difference between hijacking and stealing a recipe. stealing is taking a recipe and claiming it as your own. hijacking is editing, and the hijacker is responsible for citing his or her source of inspiration or they will forever be damned to awful cooking. to make the persimmon softies, omit the applesauce in isa's recipe and replace with persimmon pulp. axe that lemon rind while yer at it as well. throw in a 1/2 c. vegan white chocolate chips into the dough. while yer ploppin' the dough on a cookie sheet, press a pecan or two into the dough. bake at the suggested temp for about 12 minutes. these cookies will be cakey and soft.
check out that adorable little boy picking persimmons. that would be my little ewok, blasto. he was ace at hunting those "simmons". my other ewok is in the background looking on. don't you think it looks like he's trying to feed it to her?

the second persimmon recipe is dedicated to tamasin, and is a high jacked version of her cinnacrunch muffins from american vegan kitchen. i made a bold move messing with perfection with that recipe and i'm lucky it worked. these are a little dense, but soooo good.

to create this version, omit the sour cream and applesauce-(wait a minute, is there applesauce in that one?) and replace it with persimmon pulp. i think i added something else in there, but can't remember because i'm a parent and often suffer from mommy brain.

so there you have it, day#2 of MOFO and not one but TWO recipes to play around with! thanks to my vegan chef role models, and triple thanks for stopping by to read. i'll see y'all tomorrow.

xo, jewy