Persimmons with cream

Persimmons are in season. They’re a fun fruit that isn’t on many of our radars. Finding a ripe one can be tricky but once you do they’re great. This recipe is great for trying them out. It’s quick and easy. Simple flavors for some winter fruits.

If you don’t like all the talking you can skip to the printable recipe card bellow 

Simple Persimmon snack

This recipe does a great job with simplicity. Each ingredient has a spot here without getting lost. We don’t lose the star of the show either. Great for persimmons season, it’s a simple way to eat the fruit. Their flavor shine here. Of course, everything else helps hold the persimmons up. Toasted cream has a nuttiness that blends amazingly with persimmons. Putting that together with bright apples balances the flavors. The plate is well balanced in flavor and texture. Light airy cream. Crunchy walnuts. Crisp apples. 

Ripe Persimmons 

Persimmon season is full of under ripe ones. My first was extremely chalky and dried my mouth out. A sign of an under ripeness. They’re a pretty starchy fruit, and we want that starch to convert to sugar. For hachiya persimmons, they should be pretty darn soft. Your finger should leave a soft indent after a gentle press. The color should be a deep orange too. Matte orange hachiya persimmons are more under ripe from my experience. When cut open they should be pretty translucent and glossy. You want the persimmon to almost be like a pudding but still have some texture. It’s a very fine line but when you find a good hachiya persimmon is great. 

On the other end of things, we have the Fuyu persimmon. These are destined to be hard. A little less flavorful than the latter but has a fun texture. Fuyu’s are typically ready when they have a more vibrant color. It’s a little harder to tell with those though 

Substitutions. 

There are so many different ideas to do with this recipe. To start, if you can’t get your hands on toasted cream don’t worry about it. It’s simply slowly pressure-cooked cream. Regular whipped cream will do just fine. I talk about it a bit more in my eggnog post. the link is down below.

Eggnog

The apples are fun to play with too. Use whatever apple you fancy. I would go for something a little on the tart side, but not as far as granny smith. Granny smiths border the sour candy side sometimes. Finding apples with crisp texture is ideal too. I’d avoid red delicious for this recipe. Good apples for this usually have crisp in the name. Those will bring the balance in texture we want. Here are a few of my favorites. 

• cosmic crisp 
• envy 
• honey crisp 
• pink lade  
• scarlet surprise

It’s not just persimmon season, but apple season too. If you can find some local apples, that’s great. Farmers’ markets are usually full of crazy ones this time of year. You can experiment with your nuts too. Walnuts are great here, but hazelnuts, pecans, or brazil nuts would be nice too.

---

This recipe is super simple. If you’re skipping the toasted cream part, it should take less than 15 minutes. Snag some hachiya persimmons and give this recipe a try. A quick and easy winter snack. If you feel like it, throw your own twist in it. I’d love to hear what you come up with.