Dried Fuyu Persimmons

With my persimmon tree producing another bounty this year, I decided to make my version of hoshigaki or dried persimmon. My pilot experiment included just a few to see how they'd turn out. I dried some in an oven a 130 degree oven for 3 days. I massaged them a few times during the process as that's part of the artisinal hoshigaki-making process. I also tried drying one by hanging it in my closet. After a few days, it had a beautiful sugar bloom on the outside, but unfortunately also got a little moldy so I threw it away.

I love the flavor of these dried persimmons. I didn't dry mine out completely, so there is a an array of flavors and textures. The outside of the dried persimmon is chewy, sweet and pleasantly leathery while the inside has a firmish-custardy texture, subtly sweet, with a slight cinnamon aroma.

Here are the pictures of my pilot persimmon project:

Persimmons washed and ready for peeling

Perssimmon peeled and arranged in oven

Day 2

Day 2 a little later

A little dryer

 Dry!

 A cross section of one of the finished pieces.

 

References:
http://cesanjoaquin.ucdavis.edu/files/17038.PDF
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/347867