Maple Persimmon-Caramel Drops

It's Maple Monday!!! Virtual Potluck wanted to get in on the sugaring time, where maple sap flows freely and maple growers are busy collecting it, reducing it, and making it into what we know as maple syrup and sugar! When I received maple sugar from Coombs Family Farms, I knew I wanted to make a "healthier" baked good. Maple Sugar, you ask? I found this site that explained how to make three types of maple sugar, which could definitely be a fun experiment to try in 2012. This particular sugar came from the folks over at Coombs Family Farm, and not only do I love it, but I love their commitment to sustainability and tradition. They express it better here:

Since the mid-1800’s, the Coombs family has been acting as responsible stewards of the forest, following a ‘sustainable’ approach to agriculture long before anyone had a specific name for it – or could conceive of any other way to farm. As part of a fabric of nearly 8000 maple farmers who are all preserving maple forests and keeping land free from sprawl, Coombs Family Farms is doing more than making maple. We are helping to preserve crucial habitat for thousands of distinct plants and animals that need large intact tracts of forest to survive.

When deciding what to make, I settle on a combination of flavors: persimmon, caramel and maple. These started out as cookies, but when eventually baked and tasted, I decided to call them drops. M. said I should call them sweet breakfast scones, and I while do think they resemble scones a little,  I hate calling something like this such a traditional name. 

Imagine a soft but dense muffin top, dotted with caramel bits and laced with a slightly sweet maple flavor. How did the persimmon pulp come to be an ingredient in this? We had two uber-ripe persimmons in the fridge and needed to use them, so why not add some extra fiber and health into these "drops"? The persimmon flavor isn't too intense, with slight undertones of fruity sweetness. Head on over to Thyme in Our Kitchen and check out the round-up of recipes!

Maple Persimmon-Caramel Drops

Adapted from Eat, Live, Run's Persimmon Spice Cookies

2 small, ripe persimmons, peeled

1/4 cup butter or shortening

2 1/2 tablespoons maple sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 egg, beaten

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup caramel bits

1. Chop and puree the persimmons. Reserve. 
2. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, vanilla and maple sugar. Add the egg.
3. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder and reserved persimmon pulp. Fold in caramel bits.
4. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350F degrees and grease a baking sheet. 
5. Cookie dough will still be very moist, so scoop 1 tablespoon portions onto baking sheet.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, until caramel starts to melt and drops appear golden brown. 
7. Serve with butter or jam, warm out of the oven. 

This were a delicious and healthy treat, perfect for breakfast or as an afternoon snack with fruit preserves. Want to learn more about maple syrup and sugar? Connect with Coombs Family Farms on Facebook and head on over to their website to learn more about the craft of sugaring.

Disclaimer: Coombs Family Farm kindly sent me maple products to recipe test with. No monetary compensation was exchanged and all opinions are 100% based on my personal testing.

Boozy Side Dish: Spicy Beer Rice

Over at Virtual Potluck, we love our drinks and cocktails! Be it a non-alcoholic Pumpkin Spice Latte by Farmgirl Gourmet, a Creamy Hazelnut & Rum cocktail by Donna of Cookistry, or a Red Wine & Cherry Spritzer by Not Rachel Ray, we love any liquid libations. 


So when we were contacted by The Lewis Bear Company to review a few of their beers, we were were pretty excited to drink up! Check out the links at the bottom of this post to visit other blogs and see what they made with the beer. 

The Lewis Bear Company is a beverage distributorship founded in 1876 that holds the regional franchise for Anheuser-Busch. The company is headquartered in Pensacola and maintains offices in DeFuniak Springs and Panama City. The current president is Lewis Bear, Jr.. -Wikipedia Page

With my beer, I decided to make a unique side dish by infusing jasmine rice with beer. It's a perfect side dish for a quick weekday dinner, and you can make it for special occasions by adding some chopped roasted red peppers. 

Victory Brewing Company's Headwaters Pale Ale 
Tasting Notes from the company: This firmly crispy and aromatically arousing pale ale integrates a softly supportive malt base with underlies streams of herbal hop complexity.

Spicy Beer Rice
This is the  perfect side dish to your tailgating dishes! Add it to quesadillas, wrap it up in a breakfast burrito or toss it with cheese and ground beef to make a rice casserole dish!

Serves 2-3

 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup jasmine rice

1 tablespoon Sriracha (or your favorite hot sauce)

1 cup Victory Brewing Company's Headwaters Pale Ale*

season with: salt, pepper and red pepper flakes

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium sized pot and add rice and Sriracha.
2. Saute until rice is coated with oil and hot sauce. 
3. Add beer and lower heat to medium low until 90% of the beer evaporates.
4. Fluff with fork and cover pot for another 10 minutes, until all the beer has been absorbed. 
5. Serve as a side dish to soups, proteins, etc.

*Note: Bottle of beer has enough for one cup plus a shot of beer for the cook!

The Boozy Giveaway! Lewis Bear Company will be shipping out to the winner some beer-inspired t-shirts, hat, and other cool swag. Entry is limited to residents of the US, 18 or older. Contest ends at noon, Eastern time, on Sunday, February 5. To enter:

• Comment on this post and tell me what's your favorite craft beer or favorite way to use beer in your kitchen?
• Head on over to our party host site, 30AEATS and leave a comment there. Come back here and tell me you commented there! 
• Like the Cooking with Books on Facebook Page
• Like the Virtual Potluck Facebook Page

Connect with Lewis Bear Company:
Twitter 
Facebook

Disclaimer: Lewis Bear Company provided the beer to develop this recipe, but as always, my opinions are 100% based on my personal testing.