Persimmon. Muffins?

Hey, look, these are persimmons!

Oh hey, we're persimmons.

I myself had no idea what a persimmon was less than 1 year ago. Once, my friend Victoria asked me to identify one in a photo, and I could not do so without cheating. A persimmon is a fruit, grown in the wintertime, resembling (in my opinion) an heirloom tomato topped with a shitake mushroom. Size and texture are similar to tomatoes, but fewer seeds. Cooking Light Magazine tells me they have long been part of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cuisines, and are commonly used by American cooks in "holiday puddings." (Really? Okay.)

A few days ago, another intern and I were going through cookbooks looking for recipes for a breakfast event we're doing in the community next month. We came upon several using this weird orange fruit! I narrowed it down to one and gave it a shot- Spiced Persimmon Muffins.

I stuck to the recipe for the most part, but I left out the pecans (on purpose- texture thing) and the fresh ginger (by accident- #oopsIforgot). I also substituted "flax eggs" for the real eggs. What? Why?

Flax Egg- Ok so, I don't really like eggs, and when I buy them for a recipe, the leftover eggs just sit in my fridge for months. Enter, flax egg. Developed by vegan bakers, a "flax egg" is 1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 2 tablespoons warm water. Let that sit in a bowl for a few minutes to congeal and get a little goopy. It supposedly mimics the properties of an egg in a baked good! And the best part is, I am left with delicious flax instead of leftover eggs! I have had success with flax eggs in muffins before, and they turned out great with my persimmon muffins. (Tip- I just get a bit of whole flax seed from the bulk bins at the store and grind them fresh in my coffee grinder. I store the remaining meal in the freezer to preserve those precious omega-3 oils.)

Pretty rainbow-colored silicon muffin wrappers... no sticking here!

The muffins were delightful! Chewy cranberries, sweet honey and nutty whole wheat made for a great flavor and texture (also, my perfect muffin-method-mixing technique made for proper crumb formation and gluten development, thanks food science). The persimmons don't have a strong flavor, but it was fun to try baking with them. These are some other recipes that looked good- Persimmon Gingerbread, Ricotta Cheese Crepes with Persimmon-Apricot Glaze, and Arugula, Hazlenut, Persimmon, and Fennel Salad.

Morning Muesli: One of the muffin ingredients is yogurt, which I don't usually buy (texture thing... wow, I am really revealing my food jags today), but used my leftovers to make one of my favorite European breakfasts... Muesli! Muesli is a cereal mix developed in Switzerland, usually containing oats, wheat, spelt, nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. It's traditionally eaten by soaking overnight in milk and yogurt! I love museli, and had it several times for breakfast in and around Germany. I bought a muesli mix from Bob's Red Mill, and found it just delicious.

Happy Breakfast!