Persimmon scone

This little delicacy is really a scone-cake. It has the lovely light and crumbly texture of a scone in a cake form. My scone was a little hard to handle since the chunks of fruit were fairly large, I’d suggest cutting the fruit into chunks less than 1cm and also ‘scoring’ the scone into 6 pieces before cooking it to make slicing it easier (I forgot that part too!)

This recipe was two ‘firsts’ for me…the first time I’d ever eaten persimmon and the first time I have tried cooking the scone by this super speedy microwave/grill method. It wa sa a success on both counts. The persimmon has a very delicate flavour.

There are plenty of options with this recipe…you could double it up and cut scone shapes with a cookie cutter if you preferred, you can also bake the scoene on the oven in a more traditional manner or you can go down my route and use a combination of 2 mins in the microwave and then 2-3 mins under the grill to give a crips crust. This shaves off about 10 mins of oven cooking time.

I had a persimmon to try out and it worked nicely in this recipe but you could substitute it for apple, apricot  or plum…or any fairly firm fleshed fruit. Just take care if you use anything that has a very high water content or no firmness as it might alter the nature of the scone, use a little less soy milk if necessary.

Recipe: Persimmon scone cake

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1 persimmon- chopped into small pieces

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp cinnamon

1 cup ‘flour’ (I use an equal mix of quick oats and wholemeal spelt but you could also use GF flours)

1 tsp ground chia or flax

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

2 tbs rapadura

Pinch salt

2 tbs coconut oil

Up to ¼ cup soy milk (or other)

Method

Cut the persimmon into small 1cm chunks ( a little smaller than I have for a scone that is easier to handle), mix with the vanilla and cinnamon and allow to sit whilst preparing the remaining ingredients.

Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, rapadura and salt in a small bowl, add the coconut oil (this should be solid not runny) and mix through with fingers to achieve a crumbly mixture. Add the soy milk a little add a time to achieve a soft dough that holds together without being sticky.

You can either mix the persimmon chunks through the dough and then flatten altogether, or you can divde the dough into two halves, flatten one half into a circle approx. 15cm diameter, press half the persimmon onto the surface , flatten the other half firmly over the top making a ‘sandwich’ and then press the remaining fruit into the top. Dust with a little cinnamon and sugar as desired.

You can either bake for approx. 15 minutes at 180C, or for a super speedy scone, microwave for 2 minutes and then grill the top for 3-5 minutes to get a lovely crisp crust. I used the microwave method as I was keen to experiment this way and it worked perfectly!

Note: if using the microwave method be sure to use a baking liner that can be used for both the microwave and grill to avoid having to fuss around with transferring the part cooked scone.

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.