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Lemon pairs with ripe persimmon for flavorful muffins

Recipe: Lemon-persimmon muffins with lemon glaze

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JAN 7, 2024

A light lemon glaze is the finishing touch for these delicious muffins. Debbie Arrington

This muffin is a crossover treat, combining a late fall fruit with the first fruit of winter.

Muffin ingredients — Lemon and persimmon make surprisingly good
partners in baked goods.

My homegrown Fuyu persimmons are finally at that super-ripe, sack-full-of-jelly stage needed for baked goods – just in time for my first ripe lemons of citrus season.

Put together, these two fruits complement each other – especially with the luscious fresh lemon glaze. Studded with chopped dates (or raisins), these moist muffins are sweet enough without the topping, too. They’re perfect for on-the-go breakfast or a mid-afternoon snack. With the glaze, they also can be a dessert.

As with all muffins, stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture just enough to moisten; otherwise, the muffins can be tough.

Lemon-persimmon muffins with lemon glaze

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

2/3 cup persimmon pulp, pureed

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon baking soda

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ cup chopped dates or raisins (optional)

1 large egg

½ cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted and cooled

1 tablespoon lemon zest, grated

For glaze:

1 tablespoon butter

Juice of ½ lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

Zest from ½ lemon (about 1 tablespoon)

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare muffin tin; either grease cups or line with paper or silicone liners.

In a bowl or large mixing cup, combine persimmon pulp with lemon juice. Stir in baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Stir in chopped dates or raisins, if desired. Set aside.

Muffins in pan, no glaze — These muffins are also good unglazed,
fresh out of the oven.

In another bowl, lightly beat egg with a fork. Add sugar, then milk. Fold in melted butter. Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon zest, then persimmon pulp-lemon juice mixture.

Add persimmon mixture all at once to flour mixture, stirring just enough to moisten flour. Batter will be lumpy.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, about two-thirds full. Bake at 400 degrees about 15 to 20 minutes until muffin tops are golden and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Remove muffins from the oven and let cool on a rack.

Prepare glaze: In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add lemon juice and zest. Remove from heat and add sifted powdered sugar. Beat by hand until smooth and desired consistency. Add a little more lemon juice to thin if needed.

Glaze muffins, if desired. Store covered and refrigerated.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes muffins lemon citrus winter persimmons orchard fruit backyard produce Sacramento gardening baking breakfast cooking

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Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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