Persimmon Cookies, Snowball Cookies, and a Giveaway!

Before you dive into this post, please go over and vote for my Grasshopper/Creme de Menthe Bars over at My Baking Addiction/Good Life Eats! I would really appreciate it!

Giveaway details at the bottom of the page! 

I am feeling a little bit like a wholsesale retailer today.

Providing you with things you never even knew you wanted.  In bulk.  A five pound jar of mayonnaise.  Or a 62-pack of juice boxes.

Or two cookie recipes and a giveaway.  Get em while they’re still hot.

Have you started your holiday baking yet?  Because I have done no such thing.  No, no, no.

While all of the intelligent food bloggers/cookie extraordinaires’s on this earth are whipping up batch upon batch of cookie dough and then storing it safely in their freezer, I have been walking around my apartment saying things like, “I am going to lose five pounds before Christmas!” And then immediately heading into the kitchen to bake some cookies.

It’s the stress of dieting.  It’s compelling me to do crazy and irrational things.  Like immerse myself in butter and sugar. Oy.

But you can break the cycle!  You can make these and put them in your freezer so that they will be rip rarin’ to go when you need to fill up your cookie tray in two weeks.

Or you can bring them to a Christmas party.  And stand by the snack table.  Eating them.

(Is it tacky to eat your own Christmas cookies at a Christmas party?  Opinions. I want them.)

It’s your choice.

The kind sweet wonderful folks over at Tate’s Bake Shop contacted me earlier this month about taste testing some of their cookies and reviewing their cookbook.  (It is a strenuous life us food bloggers lead.)  I pondered this proposition for approximately two milliseconds before I hit the reply button and answered with a resounding YES.  I had actually had Tate’s cookies before, in Boston of all places, which is odd because I spent every single summer of my childhood in the Hamptons and did not encounter them ONCE even though that is where they are based.  That seems tragic in hindsight.

Anyways, so I received a box containing their white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies.  I am normally a chewy cookie kind of gal and these were crispy.  But between me, Sophie, Adam, and Anu.  They disappeared in approximately a week.  All 36 cookies.  One week.  And I wish I could say Adam, with his hypermetabolic self, had eaten most of them.  But I can’t lie to you this close to Christmas.  Let’s just say.  They were good.

And THEN, just when I was choosing which recipe to try from the cookbook, two Hachiya persimmons basically fell into my lap.  Really.  They dropped from the sky, into a fruit basket that my aunt brought over for Thanksgiving.  And since no one in my family actually knows what a persimmon is, I smuggled them out of my parents’ house without even a trace of guilt.  And put them into these cookies.  Which are splendid.  They are cake-like and rife with the flavor of the holiday spirit.  I chose to also douse them in Greek yogurt frosting, which I was sent a whole case of by the lovely and wonderful folks over at Chobani.  Because I have a propensity for taking healthy things and infusing them with confectioner’s sugar.  I can’t help it.  Stress baking compulsions and all.

As for the snowball cookies, they are part of an International Cookie Recipe Exchange that I’m taking part in.  And while I completely adulterated them by omitting the dried coconut (mainly because Sophie has a serious aversion to dried coconut and I couldn’t in good faith make cookies that I knew 1/3 of our apartment would not partake in).  They were truly delicious.  Crunchy on the outside.  Soft on the inside.  White chocolate goodness delicious.  Make them.  Now.

Persimmon Cookies with a Greek Yogurt Glaze
Makes 34, adapted from the Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook

1 1/4 cups Hachiya persimmon pulp (2-3 persimmons, pureed)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp grated orange rind
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 cup hazelnuts, chopped fine (original calls for walnuts)
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease two cookie sheets or line them with Silpats.

2. Cream the butter and sugars until creamy and fluffy.  Add the orange rind, egg, vanilla and persimmon pulp and mix in.  Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  Mix.  Add the hazelnut and cranberries and mix until just combined.

3. Drop the dough, using an ice cream soup or two tbsps, onto the prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  They should spring back when done.

For the Glaze
1 container Greek yogurt (I used Chobani plain, 2%)
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp maple syrup

Mix away in your stand mixer/beat with a hand mixer until combined.  Place in fridge for a half hour (it should firm up a bit).  When cookies are completely cool, drizzle the glaze over the top of the cookies.

I am submitting these to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging, which is being hosted by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything.

Snowball Cookies
Makes 2-4 dozen depending on how small you like your cookies, adapted from Melissa of My McDonald Meal 

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (not in original recipe)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp heavy cream
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup dried cranberries (original called for dried cherries)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (original called for dried sweetened coconut)

1. Heat oven to 375.  Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together brown sugar, butter, and egg and beat until smooth and fluffy.  Mix in vanilla and milk to the butter/egg/sugar mix.  Gradually add the flour mix to the butter/egg/sugar mix and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.  Mix in the pecans, cranberries, and white chocolate chips.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop dough onto sheet, about 2 tsp per cookie.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.

This is my submission to the International Cookie Recipe Exchange hosted by Lori of Fake Food Free and Adrienne of Gastroanthropology.  And also to the Hearth and Soul Blog Hop!

Giveaway time!

This giveaway is open only to US residents.  (Sorry to my international readers!)  The prize is a copy of “Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook” and a cookie gift pack containing Tate’s Bake Shop favorites – oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

Enter by leaving me a comment telling me what your favorite holiday cookie is. I  need cookie tray ideas.  So that I can do some more stress baking next week.  In the hopes of losing five pounds.  Right.

There are 2 ways to get extra entries.
1. Become a fan of Tate’s Bake Shop on Facebook and leave a separate comment telling me that you did so.
2. Tweet about this giveaway mentioning Eats Well With Others and making sure to mention my Twitter handle, @joanneeatswell, so that I’ll know that you did it!

The deadline for this giveaway is Monday, December 20.  Winners will be announced on Tuesday, December 21st.

Mega thanks to the wonderful folks over at Tate’s Bake Shop for giving me this opportunity!

Disclaimer: Although I received these products for free, I did not receive any monetary compensation for doing this review. My thoughts and feelings on them are entirely my own.