Creativity: Day 2 of 365

Persimmon Puree

Today’s Creation:

A piece of my childhood recreated.  Persimmon Cookies.

Growing up my mom used to make these persimmon cookies that I love, love, loved.  It has been years, probably decades since I have had them.  I got some persimmons last week, thinking I would make them for Thanksgiving.  However, the persimmons have to be very ripe to be good.  They weren’t ready until this week. Today was the day.  If I waited any longer, it is quite possible the persimmons might have spontaneously exploded.  They were really ripe and messy, which should translate into sweet and delicious!

Getting Started

For me, the kitchen has had to become a very creative place.  I don’t eat gluten or dairy, not because it’s some weightloss fad that some celebrity says I should try.  I don’t eat it, because I can’t without getting really, really sick.  I’ve been free of these ingredients for almost ten year for medical reasons.  This makes cooking and baking challenging at times.  I have a few trusty recipes, but many more that have failed.  I am not one to waste food, but sometime gluten free ends up being inedible.  Cookies are usually pretty easy, so I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to convert this recipe.

Dough is done

I subbed in a GF all-purpose flour, and some Earth Balance for the butter.  This is the pretty orange batter.  Looking pretty good.

Double exposure of dough and cookies ready to go in oven

As I was working on this, I felt a sense of having to do this right if this was to be my creative endeavor for the day.  I cleaned as I went so I could take pictures.  I completely forgot to take a picture of the sloppy mess the persimmons made while I  tried to get the goop out.  I felt a real sense of pressure, which is not what this project is about for me.  This project is supposed to be about playing and exploring creativity.  I was trying to remind myself to play, but  secretly feeling a sense of accomplishment for having done everything so perfectly and neatly.  I put the cookies in the oven.  I did a little more cleaning.  I thought wow it seems like there should be something else in there.  I looked at the recipe.  EGG!  There was supposed to be an egg.

The view from my kitchen window

Well, at this point it was a bit late to add the eggs.  The dough was pretty solid and half the cookies were on their way to being baked.  A few years back I had to eliminate eggs from my diet for about a year and a half.  I knew from my experience at that time that the cookies would most likely be okay.  They had a cup of puree in them.  Egg free baking often use fruit purees (like applesauce and pumpkin) to bind the ingredients and for moisture.  So I thought, I guess we’ll see what happens.  I’m doing this project to learn more about myself, and my place in this world.  I didn’t really need today to know that I can be a bit high strung, but it was a good reminder to let go of the outcome and relax.  And really who can be mad with this sunset outside their kitchen.  The picture doesn’t even do it justice.  The colors were amazingly intense with deep magentas and golds.

All done

Here’s the end product.  Pretty darn close to those lovely cookies my mom used to make.  I think the egg would have made them a bit more moist and helped them stick together better, but they were delicious.  See that one missing?  I ate it!  In fact, I think I’ll have another tonight with a cup of dairy free nog to celebrate the start of 363 days more of creativity.

I’m happy to say that I’m starting to feel excited about this journey.