November 16th, 2014
Each year around this time, I receive a LARGE bag full of Fuyu persimmons from my parents. They have a huge persimmon tree in their backyard and I am the lucky one who gets to enjoy the fruits. I always end up getting more than what my refrigerator can store and even after I handed some out to my coworkers, I was left with plenty more.
So instead of letting them go to waste by slowly rotting away at the bottom of my fruit drawer, I made an apple-persimmon pie filling for some hand pies. Since I had some pie dough left in my freezer, this was a quick dessert. I made cinnamon apple hand pies before and they tasted great. However, having never baked with persimmons before this was a long shot.
Needless to say, the apple-persimmon combination works well! For this recipe I used the Fuyu persimmons, NOT the Hachiya, astringent variety. Years ago, I made the mistake of biting into a not so ripe Hachiya persimmon and was left with a mouth-puckering surprise – it was quite bitter and very unpleasant!
Pie Dough:
Pie dough recipe can be found here. For this recipe I used half the dough and got 15 hand pies.
Apple-Persimmon Pie Filling:
1 large apple (I used Gala); peeled and diced into small pieces
3-4 persimmons, depending on the size; peeled and diced into small pieces
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
½ tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
juice of half a lemon
Yield= enough for 15-18 hand pies
Directions:
- Place diced apples and persimmons in a bowl.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix to combine.
Assemble:
- Roll out pie dough and use a 3-inch round cookie cutter to cut rounds out.
- Spoon mixture in the center of the pie dough.
- Brush some egg wash along the edges and bring opposite ends together to seal.
- Place onto parchment-lined sheet pan. Using a fork, crimp along the sealed edges.
- Once all hand pies are assembled, use a pairing knife to make 3 small slits on top.
- Brush the dough with egg wash and sprinkle sugar on top before baking.
- Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes, rotating half way through. Pies are done when they are golden in color, but not burnt.
