Note: This is a “cooking-by-the-seat-of-my-pants” post. Recipe and instructions are approximate and to the best of my shoddy memory.

This year, I wanted to try my hand at making pineapple tarts, a traditional Chinese New Year treat. As I didn’t have any pineapple on hand, I substituted some frozen persimmon pulp, cooking it down with enough white sugar (to taste) until it had become dry and paste-like.

While it cooled, I made the pastry, using the dough from House of Annie. In order to make the construction of the tarts easier, I chilled the dough in the freezer for about an hour after making it.

I decided to try a closed tart (as opposed to the open version) to practice my wrapping skills. In the end, I was mostly successful, only a few of my pastries busted open while baking.

The results were tasty; the persimmon does lend itself to a pineapple-like taste but is more delicate. The dough from House of Annie is definitely a keeper; I later used the leftovers for the base a Honey-Caramel-Cashew Nut Slice and it was delicious. Making pineapple tarts is a bit time-consuming but well worth the effort.

I’m in a snacky mood today. Our Fuyu persimmon (the crunchy, non-astringent variety) tree has been particularly bountiful this year; every morning, my dad comes back from the backyard with an armful of freshly picked persimmons. Besides eating them raw, I’ve been trying to think of ways to put them to use before they spoil. Since the sweetness of these fuyus are quite delicate and I didn’t want to overpower it, I thought that baking them into a flax-type chip might be just the thing.

I improvised a quick recipe by throwing together some flax meal and hot water; a food processor made quick work of chopping the persimmons. Threw in a pinch of kosher salt and a splash of agave nectar and spread the mixture on some parchment and stuck it in the dehydrator to “bake” into flax chips.

The result: A nutty, slightly sweet cracker that has a hint of persimmon and tons of fiber to boot. Delicious! My parents really enjoyed these and I think they’d be great crumbled over oatmeal in the morning or as a breakfast cereal.

Did I stop there? Nah. Thought I wanted to test out the dehydrator function on our convection oven even further; I sliced some persimmons thinly and dehydrated these as well. These “chips” were crispy and even sweeter than the raw version (even without any added sweetener!). Like apple chips but better. Give them a try.

Hope you enjoy these healthy snacks.

And as usual, me monkeying around with the camera:

Persimmon chip throw!