Persimmon Cookies

What you’ll need:
- 1/2 cup of shortening
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup of persimmon pulp (depending on size, 2 large or 4-5 small very ripe persimmons)
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon of cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1 cup of chopped walnuts
- 1 cup of raisins

What to do:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, soda, salt and spices.

3. In a separate bowl, cream the shortening with the sugar using a hand mixer or electric mixer. Next, beat in the egg and persimmon pulp.  Slowly beat in the flour mixture until everything is combined. Last, stir in the nuts and raisins by hand.

4. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets. The beauty of this cookie dough is you can drop the spoonfuls close together as they do not spread that much.

5. Depending on the temperature of your oven, Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes - longer if you have a slower oven. It's best to pull them out when they start to show a little brown edge. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for five minutes and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

This wonderful recipe makes about 36 cookies. Enjoy!

A couple of notes:
If you don't have cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and don't feel like running to the store for them, you can use 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice instead. Also, the original recipe called for 1 cup of sugar which I found to be a little too sweet for my taste, so I reduced the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup and found that the spices did the rest. I didn't feel I missed out in the sweetness department. Persimmons are already naturally sweet when they are at their ripest.

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