Persimmon frozen yogurt gelato, page 165 with lacy spice wafers, page 133

Persimmon ice cream in spicy lacy wafer bowl

I think my persimmon pulp is different from Bernadette's. In the book, her persimmon pulp looks glisteny and clear, like jelly. My persimmon pulb fancies apple butter, or peanut butter, instead.

And, I think that made a difference in this recipe. I was hopeful about making persimmon gelato. I thought the the complexity and natural taste to persimmons would make for an interesting ice cream. I even remade the spicy lace wafers to go with them, as I thought they'd contrast nicely.

Close up of lacy wafer

And, it's not that the gelato turned out horribly, it just wasn't all that good. Not good enough that none of the six of us at dessert that evening finished it. Humph.

I remember speaking to someone about Cooking Wild in Missouri and she said this was one of her favority recipes. So, I think the flaw is in my persimmon pulp and not the recipe. This fall was a very bad year for persimmons--there were hardly any to be found. And, it seemed to me they ripened very early as well. Perhaps, the persimmons I harvested were too dry. And, if you recall from our harvesting them, some of the persimmons were not yet ripe so we put them all in the freezer to see if that would speed things along. Perhaps that hurt the quality of the pulp more than I knew. The one thing that makes this theory shaky is that the persimmon pulp my mom put up from the year before seemed to have the same consistancy as ours from this year. So, I'm not sure why the discrepancy exists between Bernadette's gorgeous sparkling persimmon pulp and our mudesque, ugly step child version. But, I think it's affecting the recipes.

I'd be interested in hearing others give this gelato a try and seeing what comes from it.