PERSIMMON COOKIES

I adapted this from a recipe given to me by one of my favorite vendors at the farmers' market. These cookies are easy to make, the kids like them, and they last well in a tin for a couple of weeks. They look very festive when thinly coated with sugar glaze, but they are delicious plain or fancy.

Use very ripe Hachiya persimmons. When they look like they're ready for the compost - that's when they're perfect!

1 cup persimmon pulp
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 cup plump raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

optional glaze:

1 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp. almond or vanilla extract
4-5 tsp. water

Puree the pulp in a blender, then stir in the baking soda until the soda is dissolved. After a few moments, the pulp will begin to stiffen into a jelly. Cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg and the thick persimmon pulp.

Sift together the flour, salt and spices, and mix thoroughly into the batter. Stir in the raisins and walnuts.

Drop rounded teaspoons of cookie dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, about an inch apart. Bake the cookies at 350° for about 8 - 10 minutes, or until just beginning to color. Let them cool on a rack, then store in an airtight tin.

To glaze:

Stir water into the powdered sugar, one teaspoonful at a time, until you have a glaze of the consistency you like, then stir in the flavoring.

The glaze can be brushed onto the warm cookies with a pastry brush, dabbed on with the back of a teaspoon, or you can swirl the cookies in it, let the excess drip off, then place the cookies on a rack to dry. Colored sugar crystals can be sprinkled on while the glaze is wet. Be sure to let the glaze dry completely before storing the cookies.

Makes about four dozen cookies.