Persimmon Holiday Pudding
Going through Mother’s recipe stash I found this simple Persimmon Pudding recipe written up by her friend Dorothy Hoffman. These two gals (now gone) knew each other since the 40’s. Dorothy was a good cook and Mother only kept recipes she thought delicious … usually making notes on the recipe card about the outcome. No notes this time but decided it must have been a keeper. Yep!!
Quick word about Persimmon pudding. It’s not a pudding at all just as a figgy pudding isn’t. The texture is of a very moist nutty cake. The prep is quick and the baking is longer than the usual. This gives you time to prepare a hard sauce. Serve this with hard sauce or chantilly cream. I like both (of course). Dorothy’s hard sauce recipe is very quick and tastes heavily of brown sugar. I love the taste but you may wish to try another version of hard sauce here.
This is my Mother’s recipe but not as I remember it. After baking, these were not Bon Bon shaped nor as dry as the original recipe she used. As she would say, they’re better the next day, and sure enough the dryness disappeared in those Bon Bon’s. The newer recipe here is quite good. And doesn’t take a day for the moistness to be noticed. The spices even seem a bit different to me. It is a mystery … the origin of this recipe. But if you like moist, spicy, nutty, full of raisin cookies you’ll love these.
The years go by and my Thanksgiving guest list gets a bit smaller. My children have settled in with their growing families, and have pretty much taken over the joyous task of putting together Thanksgiving Dinner. But I like to have a small dinner of my own even if on a different day. The four homemade pies I used to make are no longer necessary. In fact, two is too many. I got this idea of a single pecan pumpkin pie. I looked for recipes … my idea was apparently not unique. My improvement … no pre-made crust (crust, to me, adds incredible taste) … never short-cut the pumpkin filling to a paste as I noticed in most recipes. I have simply combined my favorite fillings for these two pies (1/2 recipe each) and baked in two steps. Slather the cooled pie with whipped cream and you have a delicious two pie taste.
Every holiday calls for a special taste treat as my husband used to say. Over Labor Day Week-end it was this! Only 5 ingredients and a 
You taste one Spice Cake and you’ve tasted them all. Not true! A cake that will surely become a favorite! Looking for new birthday cake recipes! This was sent to me by my eldest as a possibility. Directly from Bake From Scratch Magazine but not exactly. The ingredients being advertised in this recipe were Heilala Pure Vanilla Extract (one of the best bourbon vanilla’s, so they say) which kinda gets lost in the spicy cake, and Heilala Vanilla Bean Paste. I can’t wait to try this vanilla extract in my 
When putting together the 
It’s not unusual for a guy friend of mine to bring along a new recipe when he comes to visit. Anything with ricotta and citrus seems to catch his eye and this recipe has both. (I need to give acknowledgement to Beads and Basil for this recipe she shared in a monthly values magazine.) When I look at a recipe for the first time I not only anticipate the taste, just how good is this going to be, but also the complexity. Sometimes complexity doesn’t equal a better product. Cookies, I usually bake on a whim. So, the recipe must have a simple list of ingredients (mostly already in my pantry) and must be limited in prep time. This original recipe calls for overnight or at least 8 hours. As you might have guessed this is too long for me, and I found a way to cut the time to 4 hours without changing the outcome in my opinion. The prep is simple and the bulk of time is in the freezing. Hope you enjoy this citrusy taste treat. We did!
Yep, I’m old school. Please, no waste! It’s hard for me to discard ingredients as they approach the expiration date. Buttermilk is an ingredient I use frequently but sometimes not fast enough to avoid the dreaded use by date. If you know about buttermilk you know you can go beyond that use by date a bit without consequences. But then the pressure is on. Not to worry, buttermilk does freeze. If you’re like me you’ve got quite a bit going on in your freezer. I just prefer to bake a cake. Buttermilk just adds the most incredible moistness to a cake. With a little over two cups of buttermilk to use I was on the prowl. And here’s what I found. It is amazing!