Persimmons!
My kitchen fruit bowls are brimming with persimmons this year.
In the past, finding myself with persimmons in the winter, I’ve pretty much defaulted to making the usual fruit-cake-like loaves of persimmon bread. Those loaves have been good–sometimes very good–but eventually that iteration of persimmon baking becomes boring.
This year I’m taking some culinary chances.
With wild abandon, I’ve added brilliant orange slices of persimmons to my salads, finding new beauty and interesting new flavor pairings.
Thanks to yet another great idea from my friend Joyce, I’ve dehydrated persimmons in my oven and added them to my snacking routine. Those little slices make for clean eating and instant gratification when those afternoon food cravings kick in. I’ve also used them to decorate the tops of cakes like this beauty from Helen Goh’s new cookbook, Baking and The Meaning of Life. (More on that wonderful cookbook and this recipe soon.)
And…drumroll…I’m now enjoying persimmons in this inspired recipe for Persimmon Cardamom Cake from The New York Times’ food columnist Eric Kim. Here, persimmons are paired with cardamom for a cake reminiscent of Marian Burros’ iconic plum torte. Just wow!
Eric Kim wrote about this cake in a piece in the New York Times titled “All the Juicy Details of My Five-Year Quest” here. In that piece he describes the lengthy development of this recipe, a cooking journey that led him to discover interesting techniques to maximize this cake’s flavor and texture. Among those discoveries: Kim baked fat wedges of ripe Fuyu persimmons before adding them to his cake. This pre-baking deliciously concentrated the flavor of the fruit, firmed the persimmons’ texture in a very interesting way, and reduced the volume of the fruits’ juices in the batter thus avoiding a too-moist final product. Also, he whipped heavy cream to soft peaks before folding it into the cake batter rather than adding liquid cream to the batter–a step that effectively aerated the batter and also yielded a better crumb. These are techniques I plan to experiment with in other recipes.
Kim, if you are not familiar with his work, is the author of a cookbook titled Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home. You can order the cookbook through your local bookstore or on Amazon here. . He also writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and contributes to the newspaper’s weekly food page where this recipe appeared. Currently, he is set to publish Spaghetti Junction, a collection of his personal essays. The child of immigrants from South Korea, Kim’s life journey is one more American success story.
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Persimon Cardamom Cake
Ingredients
- For the Persimmons:
- 4 Fuyu persimmons (soft but not squishy, peeled, cut into 8 wedges)
- 1 T. granulated sugar
- 1 T. fresh lemon juice
- For the Cake:
- 1 C. heavy cream (cold)
- 1/2 C. unsalted butter (melted and slightly browned)
- 1 t. ground cinnamon
- 1 1/4 t. ground cardamom (save 1/4 t. to sprinkle over the top of the cake along with some sugar at then end)
- 1 C. plus 1 T. granulated sugar (save out 1 T. to add to the cardamom to sprinkle over the cake at the end)
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1/2 t. coconut extract (or almond extract)
- 3/4 t. kosher salt
- 1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 t. baking soda
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 and line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment.
- Step 2 Prepare persimmons by peeling and slicing each persimmon into eights. Put the persimmon wedges on the rimmed cookie sheet and toss with sugar and lemon juice. Bake for about 20-30 minutes. You want the wedges to give off some of their juice and you want that juice to be sticky. When the persimmons are baked remove them from the oven and set aside to cool.
- Step 3 Line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment. Alternatively, butter the cake pan and use a round Silpat to cover the bottom of the cake pan.
- Step 4 Put the cream in a bowl and beat until it forms soft peaks. Set aside.
- Step 5 Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat until the butter just starts to brown. Remove from heat quickly so not to burn the butter. Pour the butter into a large bowl. Add cinnamon and 1 t. cardamom. Add 1 C. sugar and whisk to combine.Add eggs one at a time. Whisk after adding each egg. Add the coconut extract and salt. Whisk.
- Step 6 Gently fold half of the whipped cream into the batter. Use a rubber spatula for this step. You are done when the cream has mostly been incorporated into the batter. It is OK to have some streaks. Reserve the other half of the whipped cream for serving the cake after it is baked.
- Step 7 Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda to the batter. Fold these ingredients into the batter until they are just incorporated.
- Step 8 Scoop the batter into the prepared 9-inch round cake pan. Smooth the top of the batter.
- Step 9 Arrange the baked persimmon wedges on top of the batter. Combine the remaining sugar and ground cardamom and sprinkle over the batter.
- Step 10 Baking times will vary depending upon your oven. My cake was done at 45 minutes. You will know your cake is baked when it is firm to the touch and when a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove baked cake from the oven and let it cool.
- Step 11 Sift some powdered sugar over the top of the cake and top with whipped cream to serve. Cook’s Note: Eric Kim suggests refrigerating leftovers of this cake and enjoying the slices microwaved.
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