My Grandad lived in New York City, so I didn't get to see him very often. He was a soft spoken man with twinkling light blue eyes, but you could tell that he was not a man to cross. Family lore has it that he was active in the Sein Fein movement to free Ireland, his birthplace, from the British. He loved Ireland and would visit as often as possible. One time when we visited his home after Christmas, there on the mantle was a Christmas card from DeValera, who at the time was the equivalent of President in Ireland.

I suppose that I should be much more knowledgeable about Ireland, but there was a real effort once the children (my Mom and her brother) were born to make sure that they were raised as Americans, so she never learned as much about her Irish heritage as her much younger step-sisters did.

When my Mom would visit Grandad in New York, she would always try to make this cake to take with her because Grandad loved it. Well, not this cake, but the applesauce version. He would ask if she had gotten it downstairs because there was a very good bakery downstairs from their apartment. He apparently would be surprised that she would make him a cake and bring it all that way, but he was always pleased. When he came to visit at our house, she almost always made the applesauce version of this cake because it was his favorite. He wasn't that fond of super sweet cakes or ones with a lot of icing. My Dad was like that, too. He actually preferred fruit pies to cake any day.

When the persimmons ripened this week, I decided to try substituting persimmon pulp for the applesauce in the recipe. The persimmons need a cold snap to really get sweet. The leaves fall off the tree and they hang there, like bright orange Christmas balls, until it gets cold enough for them to ripen. This type of persimmon is inedible until it is soft and almost squishy. This year there were fewer fruits than last year, but most of them were huge, weighing at least a pound each.

It only took two to make two cups of persimmon pulp. To prepare them, you cut off the stem end and then peel them and chop up or mash the pulp.

Since I rarely cook with shortening, I replaced the shortening in the original recipe with butter, decreasing it to 1/2 cup. I also reduced the sugar and mostly used brown sugar. The resulting cake was delicious, with a subtle persimmon flavor and assertive spice flavors. If you can't find persimmons, you can switch back to applesauce and you will still have a cake that Grandad would love...and you will too.

Grandad Would Have Loved This Persimmon Cake
a variation of a recipe from Virginia Cookery

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans (or another nut)
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 ½ cups persimmon pulp

Sift together flour, soda, salt and spices. Set aside.

Cream the butter, add the sugars gradually, creaming until light. Add beaten eggs and beat to blend.

Add the flour mixture alternately with the persimmon pulp, starting and ending with the flour mixture.

Fold in the nuts. Turn into a Bundt pan that has been greased and floured.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for one hour or until done. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool before serving.

Makes on large Bundt cake. Once it has cooled, you can sift a little confectioner’s sugar over for garnish if desired.

Cookbook Corner - A Winter Muffin

I suppose that there are plenty of people who love to cook who don't collect cookbooks...but I've never met one. The internet may change things, but for me one of the joys of Christmas is that I usually receive at least one delightful cookbook.

So for todays' Cookbook Corner we are looking at Baking in America, Traditional and Contemporary Favorites from the Past 200 years, by Greg Patent. It was a gift from my good friends Lori and Phil. Since they live near by, they often benefit from my baking adventures, so it is a smart move to get me thinking about what to bake next.

The recipes are broken down by chapter into fairly obvious categories like sweet yeast bread, savory yeast bread, quick breads, a few chapters on different types of cakes, one on cookies, on on pies and tarts, one on fruit desserts. What makes this book so nice is that each chapter bigins with some history. For example, the one on quick breads goes into the substances used as leaveners (other than yeast) in the past and when commercial baking powders became available, and even a tidbit about litigation surrounding baking powders. The recipes are also fun - a combination of favorite traditional recipes and some ones with new twists.

I was happy to see that this author loves persimmons and that there were a number of recipes using persimmons. The last of the ripe persimmons...the ones that stayed on the tree despite gale force winds a few weeks ago...have been calling to me each day when I walked down to get the newspaper in the morning. They look like dark orange lanters hung on the bare branches. The birds have been feasting on some, but there are still a few to bake with. When peeled and mashed, they look like jewels. See for yourself!

Here is what I did with the last persimmons of the season. This muffin is moist, just slightly sweet and does not need a thing (including butter) added to it. It was good warm, but I liked it best at room temperature along with a cup of hot tea. The perfect winter snack could just be this Persimmon Pecan Muffin. I have to confess, however, that I couldn't find the pecans so I used chopped walnuts and the muffins were wonderful.

Persimmon Pecan Muffins

1 ¾ cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 large egg
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe Hachiya persimmon pulp (from 2-3 persimmons)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
½ cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake papers, or grease lightly.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice together into a large bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg, sugar, and vanilla together for 1 minute. Whisk in the persimmon pulp and the melted butter. Scrape this mixture over the flour mixture, add the chopped nuts, and fold together with a rubber spatula just to moisten the dry ingredients. Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and spring back when gently pressed. Cool the muffins in their cups for 1 minute, then carefully transfer them to cooling racks. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. Makes 12 muffins.