Grandma’s Persimmon Cookies
This popular persimmon cookies recipe is awesome with a cold glass of milk. When Fall arrives and persimmons are plentiful, make a batch of these to share! It’s an old recipe that Grandma used to make and I still have her original written recipe! We originally published her recipe back in 2011 and have updated the information in this article about what the best persimmons are for her cookies. Enjoy!
Persimmon Cookies Recipe from Grandma
This cookie recipe is direct from my Grandma’s recipe box to you. They are a gloriously soft, moist cookie. Somewhere in-between the texture of a cookie and a fluffy cake, these persimmon cookies are similar to the cookie part of a whoopie pie cookie’s texture, but with the addition of toasted nuts and dried raisins or cranberries.
Grandma will always be one of my greatest kitchen inspirations. Anything she had in her rotation would almost always be a guarantee that I’d like it. Grandma left me with my first memories of cooking, and of trying octopus, and of learning as a five-year-old that I actually liked cooked carrots. If there was something I didn’t think I’d like, she would affectionately but unwaveringly insisted I try them. “You don’t have to eat them all, just try them.” After I found this recipe in Grandma’s recipe box and my mom declared it was one of her favorite cookies that Grandma would make, Diane and I knew we had to make a batch. And then another, and another… Over the years it has become a must have for us every fall & winter.
Video Making Grandma’s Persimmon Cookies
Best Fall and Winter Cookies
Why every fall & winter? That is the season for persimmons. It has always been one of our favorite trees to grow. As it’s beautiful leaves change color then drop in the fall, they reveal the bounty of fruit slowly ripening on it’s branches. As most of our garden in going dormant, the persimmon’s ripening fruit, in it’s stunning orange, fills our hearts.
Different Persimmons for Baking or Eating: Hachiya vs Fuyu
There are two main types of persimmons: astringent and non-astringent. The Hachiya is by far the most common astringent persimmon, and Fuyu is the most common non-astringent variety. The Hachiya persimmons (and other astringent varieties) are nearly in-edible until they are complete ripe. When ripe the flesh will be soft like pudding, but anything less than gooey soft means they are not ready yet so just give them more time to ripen (they’ll ripen fine on the counter). They Fuyu persimmons (and other non-astringent varieties) have a larger range of deliciousness. They’ll still have an astringency when un-ripe, but once they get a nice color, the flavor becomes quite nice, even while they are still firm. You can eat or cook with them like a crunchy apple. Given enough time, they too can soften and become more pudding like (similar to the Hachiya persimmons), but most often they are eaten or cooked while crunchy. Here’s a great article on different varieties of persimmons for all you persimmon-nerds like us.
Best Persimmon for Cookies
What is the best type of persimmon for this recipe? By far, the Hachiya (and similar varieties) are the best kind for the cookies. You want a soft persimmon puree, and the Hachiyas, when ripe are exactly that. Just pop off the top and scoop out the flesh. It should be so soft, you barely need to mix it to have a puree texture (a few smallish lumps are fine in the cookies). You can use the Fuyu types if they are given the chance to ripen up really soft, but they won’t always ripe properly that soft if they are picked too soon (which often happens when picked commercially).
Persimmon Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (113 g) butter , softened
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking soda
- 1 cup (260 g) ripe persimmon pulp (about 1-2 very ripe persimmons)
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) kosher salt or sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) ground clove
- 1 cup (120 g) chopped toasted nuts (walnuts or pecans are our favorite choices)
- 1 cup (145 g) raisins or dried cranberries
Equipment
- Medium Cookie Scoop optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to Bake at 325°F/163°C. Grease or line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Scoop the persimmon pulp from the fruit. (The easiest way we've found to do that is to lift the top leaf/stem section from the persimmon, then use a spoon to scoop out the pulp.) Break up the pulp a little to make the texture less varied. (It will get broken up more when you beat it into the batter. It's ok to have some bite sized intact pieces).
- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg, and then add baking soda and persimmon pulp. Mix well (the mixture may still be a bit clumpy).
- In another bowl combine flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and whisk together by hand until well combined, about 30 seconds.
- Stir the dry mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in the nuts and raisins or cranberries. (Chilling the cookie dough at this point will help give fluffier cookies.)
- Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the prepared sheet pan (a medium cookie scoop works great for this step). Keep cookies small and far apart as they spread out.
- Bake at 325°F/163°C for 15-18 minutes or until set and light golden around the edges. Allow to cool and serve.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Love for our Persimmon Tree
Our Homegrown Persimmons (these are a giant fuyu that have been allowed to fully ripen). We were able to eat it crunchy like an apple and when they ripened soft, they were perfect for cookies. Update: Our persimmon tree died in 2016 due to the drought. But thankfully we have the photos to remember their gorgeous and delicious memories. We have a new tree (a regular fuyu – not a giant fuyu), that we’ve started and will hopefully take off and be as beautiful as its predecessor.
Can I skip eggs? My daughter is allergic to eggs but she loves eating persimmon so I want to bake it for her.
Hi, we’ve not yet tested the cookies without eggs. But we feel that you need something to bind the batter, so maybe an egg substitute or apple sauce.
I just made a batch of these persimmon cookies. They are moist and tasty, but I think the recipe would benefit from a little more salt and a teaspoon of vanilla to really make the flavors pop. Surprisingly, the cookies are not that sweet. I have never made persimmon cookies before but I noticed a lot of recipes have a sugar glaze on top. That might be a nice addition to these cookies as well. Overall, the recipe is definitely worthy of making again.
So 9 years after you posted this recipe, I see that I’m another quarantine baker using their frozen pulp. My spouse took out 2 cups of frozen pulp, and I mistakenly removed another 4 cups from the freezer (long story)…so I had to find another way to use other than pudding. We already made 2 batches of that! So I hunted for just the right cookie recipe, and yours was perfect. I used both dark & golden raisins and made a double batch. I iced the cookies while they were still warm for a nice glazed effect. My spouse declared that they were better than any of the cookie batches I made at Christmas. So this recipes will be a seasonal tradition!
That’s awesome. So glad everyone loved the cookies & thanks for sharing!
Great! Used 3/4 cup raisins & 1/4 c crasins, frozen/thawed/persimmons with skins (scissor snipped in cup), 1/2 c sugar in dough and 3/4 C sugar in a bowl to shake heaping teaspoons of dough, baked 18 min on parchment. Made about 3 dozen
Love this recipe, and your story. I have made this twice with frozen pulp from Very ripe Fuyu persimmons from my tree. I had to sub gluten free flour- and still- these were a hit! Made some without any fruit or nuts, and have used golden raisins in a batch, and dried cranberries and chopped dried apricots in another. Yum!
Wow your additions sound great! Thanks for much for sharing, Shari. Have a great day.