Sunday, December 13, 2009

FUYU Cake with Grand Marnier Frosting

In November, we had a Persimmon Party.  We had salad with persimmons and fennel; persimmon salsa, Couscous with Persimmons, cranberries, and hazelnuts; FUYU Cake with Grand Marnier Frosting; pot stickers and roasted pork.  Well, the pot stickers and roasted pork did not have persimmon ingredients, but they were sure good.
FUYU persimmon is the non-astringent type.  It looks like a squashed ball, like a fat saucer(??)
It is edible while it is still crunchy.  You can taste some low level of tannin in some of the FUYU type as you bite close to the core.  The best way to pick and eat the FUYU is when the outer skin is all evenly colored in deep orange, but not translucent.  When peeled, I prefer it peeled, you will see lines of brown all around.  I am not a food scientist, but I think they are concentration of sugar... like when banana starts to brown on the skin.
The original recipe to this cake with Grand Marnier Frosting calls for Cranberries.  I decided to test with the FUYU persimmons.  Chopped two small persimmons were just enough to make 2 cups.  There are about 1/4 Cup of Grand Marnier in the Frosting.  The cake is heavy and dense.  It's almost in the category of pound cake or bread.

Makes 2 regular loaves or 6 mini loaves.  Or use 1 Bundt Cake Pan plus 1 small loaf pan
12 servings per large loaf
Preheat oven to 330'F.   Bake for 1 hr 10 min to 1 hr 15 min for large loaves & 60 min for mini loaves.
Ingredients:
1-1/2 C Unsalted Butter, Softened, plus more for buttering pan
1-1/2 C Sugar
4 Eggs
1 C Orange Juice
1 C Sour Cream
2 Tbsp Freshly Grated Orange Zest
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
4 C All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
(1-1/2 C Dried Cranberries - Optional)
2 C FUYU Persimmons - Chopped
2 C Powdered Sugar
7 to 8 Tbsp Grand Marnier

Methods:
1.  Butter and dust loaf pans with flour
2.  Creaming Method: Medium speed, cream butter & sugar until fluffy and pale.
3.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
4.  Add Orange juice, source cream, orange zest, and Vanilla.  Mix well until blended.
5.  Whisk Dry Ingredients:  In a large bowl, whishk together Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt.
6.  Folding:  Add Flour Mixture, Persimmons, into butter mixtures - Using the largest spatula you have in your kitchen, fold and turn, fold and turn until well blended, but do not overmix.
7.   Pour the batter equally into the loaf pan.
BAKING:
8.  Bake for 1 hr 10 min to 1 hr 15 min at 330'F or until the toothpick inserted in centers come out clean.
GRAND MARNIER GLAZE:
Whisk:  In a small bowl, Whisk together Powdered Sugar and Grand Marnier slowly to watch for the consistency - Glaze should have consistency of thick syrup or corn syrup.  If it is too thick, add additional liqueur.
COOLING & GLAZING:
Cool for 10 min, then remove and transfer to a cooking rack set over a large baking sheet.  (Except that I was taking mine early morning to the office, so I left them in the pan.)
1.  Using a long skewers of some sort, poke deep holes in tops of the cake.  Drizze with Grand Marnier glaze to cover the entire cake & seeps through the holes.
2.  Let the cakes cool completely, then slice and serve. (or wrap and freeze, if you would like.)


(Double click on each image to view comments included.)








Persimmons - Un'tannin' by Frozen Method

Many people probably has already tried this "Freezing" method to "untannin" the astringent persimmons / HACHIYA persimmons.  Here is the result of my testing.
Both persimmons were FIRM unripe HACHIYA persimmons.
1.  One with peel
2.  One without
Both were washed and leaves were taken off but with stem.
Both were placed in the Freezer on the same day for supposed 24 hours freezing period.
Because I was busy, I left them frozen for several days.
According to a couple of sites, the freezing method would cause the "tannin" to disappear.
This is how they looked:  (double click on each image to view comments included.)










So what or how did they taste like?  That is the most important question.
First, it went down smooth, sweet, and yummy, but Alas! the after taste of the tannin showed up right away.  It was too good to be true.  Although the level of tannin were much much lower - let's say by 85% when compared to the raw form of the HACHIYA.  My mouth and throat felt the unpleasant 'drying' effect a bit.  Not enough to make you sick, but it took well over 30 minutes before it all went away.  If you have had a better experience than I did, please let me know.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Savory Pancake

My favorite fluffy Pancake is about 1" in height and about 6" round.  Pretty much like a cake.
The best recipe sometime happens when you are not really measuring quite so accurately with the measuring tools, but here is my best pancake from the pancake mix.  *I like to put 1 Tbsp of sugar when I am taking the pancake to the office.  This way, I won't need to dress the pancake with pancake syrup.


TOOLS:  6 inch frying pan, spatula, mixing spoon, measuring cup and spoon.

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix (Plus 1 Tbsp & 1 tsp)
1 shake of grounded Cloves
2 shakes of grounded Herbs of Provence
1/4 Cup Milk
1 Tbsp Sugar
3 Tbsp of Butter for cooking.

Methods:
Mix all dry ingredients well. 
Pour milk in and mix gently.  It should be in medium thick consistency of the cake batter.
If it feels too watery, add the extra 1Tbsp of pancake.  Mix.  If it still feels liquidy, add 1 tsp more of the pancake mix.  The mixture should not be too thick, however.  If it becomes too thick, add 1 tsp of milk.  Stir, set aside
Over medium-low heat:
Heat up 6 inch Non-stick frying pan and melt 1 Tbsp of butter.
If using stainless steel frying pan, be sure to HEAT the frying pan well and all the way around, then put the butter in.
Move the butter around the pan to cover the entire bottom of the pan.  (Do not put pancake batter in the cold stainless steel frying pan.)
When the butter is melted and slightly bubbling, Pour the entire batter mixture in.
Move the pan a bit around to make sure the edges are bit brown and when the pan is shaken a bit, the batter moves around with the movement.
Turn the heat to low.
Splat two thin slices of butter on top of the raw surface of the pancake.
Turn the pancake over.
Cook till the bottom is light gold brown. - 2 min.
Serve with butter on the top with or without the Syrup.