Grandma's Persimmon Cookies

These are a different kind of cookie than what I've posted before. Somewhere between a cookie and a spice bread with a fluffy crumb interior but enough sugar to get a caramelized crispy edges.

 I grew up with frozen persimmons in the freezer ready to be thawed just for these cookies. I didn't know until I was an adult that there are two types of persimmons - firm flat ones that you can eat like an apple fresh, and the ones with the "pointy" bottoms that are used for cooking and cookies when they are incredible soft and squishy. 


How soft should your persimmons be? Soft enough that the pulp slips from the skin with very little encouragement and plops into the bowl below.


The recipe notes that the "Grandma" was my Great-Grandma Giva.

What you need

1 cup persimmon pulp
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup nutmeats (typically I use walnuts)
1 cup raisins (I think dried cranberries would be good too)
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves (optional, says the original recipe - but I why I can't fathom!)

Git 'er Done

Preheat the oven 375 degrees

Into that lovely bowl of persimmon pulp, mix in the baking soda.

Like a typical cookie recipe, cream butter and sugar, then add the egg and mix.

UNLIKE a typical cookie recipe, add the nutmeats and raisins at this point and mix.

Mix together the remaining dry ingredients and then add to the creamed mixture, stirring in.

Add the persimmon-soda mix. Surprise! It's like jelly now! Mix until blended.


Drop batter onto ungreased cookie sheet in large spoonfuls and then (VERY IMPORTANT), spread cookies out to flat cookie shaped objects with a fork. If you don't do this, you will end up with tall, dense cookies you have no one but yourself to blame for.


"Bake until cookies are golden brown, with fairly dark edges".

The original recipe doesn't give a baking time. Unlike the other cookie recipes I've posted here there's lots of lee-way on the cookie time. They don't overbrown and burn if cooked 1 minute too long. In fact, I cooked one batch of cookies for ummmm...30 or 40 minutes. Completely forgot about them. Took them out and they were BROWN. As the cookies sit they soften up and they were perfectly edible and delicious - better than the batch that was barely brown at ~15 minutes. I think a good range is 20-25 minutes, check them at 15 minutes.

• Do NOT take them out too early
• Error on the side of more brown
• Let them sit and cool and soften before making judgements
• Don't throw out "burnt" cookies without letting them have a chance. 

On the left is a 15 min baked cookie. On the right is a...ummm..30 or 40 or 45 min baked cookie. Something in between is your goal! You want the edges brown like the right hand cookies, but the middle will be closer to the left hand cookie.

What about freezing? Because they have to be mashed flat, they don't lend themselves to being rolled into balls and freezing, then they have to be pretty thawed to flatten out. My solution has been to freeze them in flat "sheets" in quart size ziplocks at approximately the thickness of the cookies. To bake, I cut the ziplock off my cookie dough slab and then break into pieces and put on a cookie sheet.