I absolutely love persimmons. My grandmother’s property had two persimmon trees and every fall they were simply spectacular. These two trees sat among many other trees with leaves that by then had turned into beautiful shades of yellow and red. The persimmon trees stood out majestically tall with their dark green leaves and beautiful orange fruit. The variety of persimmons that I grew up eating were the softer kind known as Hachiya. It wasn’t until I came to the US that I was introduced to the Fuyu variety. It took me a while to get used to this as I grew up with a persimmon that was far softer and had so many childhood memories attached to the taste and feel of my grandmother’s persimmons. Now I love the fuyu variety as well and look forward to seeing them at the farmers market every fall.

Last week our dear friend Steve dropped off a big bag of persimmons that he picked from his parents’ tree. I was so excited because I was planning on featuring today’s recipe and here I am using home grown persimmons!

Now onto the inspiration for this post. Last year during one of our many trips to Stone Brewing Co. in San Diego one of their desserts immediately caught my eye. It was a Persimmon Tart.

The tart was good, but I felt that it needed a little tweaking; so I went to work and tried a few combinations. A few tries later I present to you Persimmon Mini Tarts!!!

Ingredients

Dough
2 cups flour
1 1/2 sticks cold butter
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup ice cold water
Filling
7 medium persimmons
1 – 2 tbsp sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tbsp heavy cream
cinnamon

Before you begin, place water for the dough in your freezer.

While the water gets ice cold, in a food processor combine flour, salt, and sugar.  Pulse a few times to combine.  Remove butter from fridge and cut into small cubes, then add to the dry ingredients.

Pulse a few times until it all looks like a coarse meal.

Remove water from freezer and slowly add to the rest of the ingredients while pulsing. Add enough water until the dough comes together. Some days you might end up using only 1/3 of a cup of water while other days you may need 1/2 cup. It all depends on the weather.  Don’t panic, just make sure your dough is not too wet.

Once the dough is ready it’ll all come together into a ball. Make sure that the dough is not too wet.

Remove dough from food processor and work into a disk. Place dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours.

While the dough rests in the fridge peel and dice persimmons. Place persimmon in a pot along with sugar and cook on medium for about 10 minutes until the fruit turns just tender but is still firm and holds its shape. If you persimmons are sweet on their own then add only 1 tablespoon of sugar, but if they need some sweetness, then add an additional tablespoon of sugar.  Once ready remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature.

Remove dough from the fridge and roll out into about 1/4 inch thickness.

Place 4 inch mini tart pans over the dough and with a knife cut around the mold leaving enough dough around to press into the mold.

Flip mold around and push dough towards bottom and side. Press top portion of dough into the mold and remove excess dough.

Blind bake crust by gently forking the dough and adding dried beans, or pie weight, in order to prevent the dough from rising during the baking process.  Bake in 375° oven for about 20 minutes. Once baked place on a cooling rack.

Melt chocolate over a double boiler.  Add heavy cream and stir until chocolate is completely melted and is combined with cream.

Carefully spoon in melted chocolate, while still hot, in each tart crust until just below the edge.  Allow for chocolate to come to room temperature.

Load each tart crust with cooked persimmons and add a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can make everything ahead of time and once you are ready to serve them, all you have to do is simply assemble!

If you are a dark chocolate lover, then follow this recipes as is. However, if you are not, then add a bit of sugar while melting the chocolate to make it more appealing to your taste.

Thanksgiving Recipes 2011

Purée ~ Mashed Potatoes
Twice Baked Yams with Feta and Walnuts
Orange & Cinnamon Turkey Brine
Turkey with Orange & Cinnamon Glaze

Thanksgiving Recipes from 2009 & 2010

Pumpkin Khoresht
Rice Stuffing
Brussels Sprouts Persian Style
Beet & Pomegranate Salad
Butternut Squash & Prune Khoresht
How to Brine Turkey
Pomegranate & Port Glazed Turkey
Pomegranate Gravy
How to Make Turkey Stock