The Persimmon Palette

With persimmon’s, it’s about the color!  It ranges right across the oranges, yellows and reds of the cadmium family, and matures with a blush of the earth tones, primarily burnt sienna. Because every flavor has a color in my kitchen, I approach the persimmon through the artist’s palette. The challenge is not only preserving  the delicate and unique flavor of this fruit, it’s preserving the hue and tint as well.

When I taste the silky, soft, intense sweetness of the pulp, I pick up a little spice  and citrus. Since I had an abundance of Hachiya’s to work with, I ignored my usual persimmon recipes which use less pulp, like salsa, and went for the big cheese! I suspended half the pulp in a delicate cheesecake batter which highlights the background flavors. The remaining pulp became a pure glaze of color and flavor.

I found the original recipe on allrecipes.com (attributed to “schmecktqut”), read the comments, and came up with a version which created the perfect persimmon package. I substituted  a ginger snap and walnut crust, added 1 less egg, and drained the pulp through cheese cloth overnight, saving the juice. I also cut back on the spices, using a little dried ginger, and half the nutmeg (fresh).

The glaze took a bit of research, but I finally found the perfect solution: a mirror. This is courtesy of theleftoverqueen. I followed her recipe as printed, with the addition of yellow as well as red (makes orange!) coloring to enhance the color.

And because we don’t want to appear to greedy, I baked them in the small 4″ spring forms. That way everyone can have half a cake without guilt, almost! And you have to admit, the color is a perfect cadmium orange-red!