Recipe: "Persimmon Crumble"

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today we got some free persimmons, so I made this. I probably put less than $1 of other ingredients in, so yay, almost-free dessert!

When I was little, my grandmother and I used to pick up persimmons from an empty lot near her house, and they are still pretty easy to find out in the world if you know what to look for: a medium-sized tree that drops most of its leaves and then has lots of little orange balls hanging from it. Pick them off the ground, not the tree. Persimmons make good pies, cakes, or persimmon butter.


Persimmon Crumble


Ingredients:

2 cups persimmons
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
dash of nutmeg


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º.

Wash the persimmons. Remove as much of the skin as possible. Cut them in half and skin out all the seeds. Cut the persimmon pulp into bite-sized pieces. Put the pulp into a bowl.

Add 1/3 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon tapioca starch, and 1/2 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon. Stir until combined. Pour the pulp into a pie plate.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup flour, 1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar, 1/3 cup butter, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, and a dash of nutmeg. Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Spoon the crumble topping over the persimmon filling.

Bake at 350º for 30-35 minutes until the crumble topping starts to turn brown. Allow to cool for five minutes before serving.


Notes:

American persimmons are a small heritage fruit that ripens in the autumn. You can find them in forests or abandoned lots, rarely in farmer's markets, but not at supermarkets. (The Asian kind are totally different.) They taste sort of peachy or orangey. When picking persimmons, get ones that look broken and mushy, orange to slightly brownish, but not moldy or with bugs in them. If you get ones that look nice, they are not ripe and will be inedibly bitter and so astringent they pucker your whole mouth. Persimmons are best after a frost -- you can freeze and thaw them for that effect -- but as long as they're gushy they should be fine. They actually hold together quite well when cooked and this dessert set up nice and firm even when hot.

Tapioca starch is like tapioca pudding balls, only powdered instead of pellets. It makes a wonderful glossy pie thickener. If you don't have it, you can just skip it in this recipe, or substitute plain flour. Persimmons set fine without it.

Pretty much any sweet spice will work in this recipe: cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, etc. Feel free to experiment.

If you want to dress up the crumble topping, you can also put in things like nuts, granola, or ginger chips. Conversely if you want a pie, just put the persimmon filling into your favorite pie crust, whether homemade or frozen.

Comments

Saigon cinnamon?

[dialecticdreamer]

Why Saigon instead of Ceylon or other cinnamon?

Is there a specific effect you're going for /in/ the "cinnamon" flavor?

Re: Saigon cinnamon?

[ysabetwordsmith]

You can use whatever kind of cinnamon you have. Saigon is a type that has a very strong spicy flavor and dark red-brown color. It's almost like powdered redhots. I've been buying it from McCormick.

Re: Saigon cinnamon?

[dialecticdreamer]

Ah, I have Ceylon cinnamon. A little less like red-hots, a little more of a woodsy undertone to it.

Re: Saigon cinnamon?

[ysabetwordsmith]

That woodsy note works better with meats and grains. The brighter note is better for fruit or if you want to make really picante things. Saigon cinnamont + fresh ginger = hot.

Re: Saigon cinnamon?

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I could see that working well for cherry or peach.

Isn't Ceylon the 'other' cinnamon, the one of Mexican sweets?

Re: Saigon cinnamon?

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I could see that working well for cherry or peach. <<

Peach or apricot, yes. Cherry I'd probably season differently.

>> Isn't Ceylon the 'other' cinnamon, the one of Mexican sweets? <<

Yes.

[rebelsheart]

I might not be fully awake yet. Despite having read this entry last night, this morning I misread the title as "Pokémon Crumble" and was briefly confused.

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

Well, it is sort of yellow and orange ...

[krait]

I'm making a note of this entry, because there's a persimmon tree in my neighbourhood!

(I feel very secretive about it -- "I know where it is! I bet most of the people who pass by there haven't even noticed!" I walk by it whenever I take the dog a certain way, so I get to check up on it semi-regularly.)

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

A good persimmon tree is a treasure. I planted some of the leftover seeds today; maybe they'll sprout. I have one or two baby persimmon trees that I planted, but they haven't fruited yet, and more would be better.

[eseme]

I used this recipe last night with the Asian pears my mom gave me. Very tasty, though I had more crumble topping that I needed for one pie crust plate. I used it all anyway. I particularly like the spices, though I had only organic cinnamon of unknown provenance.

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I really appreciate the feedback.

>> I used this recipe last night with the Asian pears my mom gave me. <<

That's good to hear.

>> Very tasty, though I had more crumble topping that I needed for one pie crust plate. I used it all anyway. <<

Some people like more crumble topping than others. I tend to use the dry ingredients as a standard base, and vary the spices. If you add anything else, like nuts, it will make considerably more. The standard amount works well for me because it pretty reliably covers a fruit pie of jumbled pieces, and then cooks down in the oven.

>> I particularly like the spices, though I had only organic cinnamon of unknown provenance. <<

I've found that regular and Saigon cinnamon substitute fine; Saigon is just zippier.