Chef Zoe Nathan has created a beautiful cookbook full of rustic baked goods and breakfast favorites straight from her quaint bakery in Santa Monica, California. This cookbook is a great resource. In between the ingredient lists and gorgeous photographs are stories of how each recipe came to be and tips on how to make them great. Each chapter starts with a time and goes into a story of what is happening at the moment in the bakery. If you’re in search of a baking cookbook that holds many savory and breakfast dishes, look no further, Zoe Nathan has stunned with her first cookbook.
“Four-thirty is the morning’s sweet spot. We’re awake. We’re flowing. We’re hitting our stride, and we own the kitchen...We have no awareness the egg delivery will be late, the bacon will burn, the meat soup will be mislabeled veggie, and a server will spill a tub of jam all over the walk-in floor literally 5 minutes after he clocked in. ”
Persimmon Spice Cake
Originally By: Huckleberry Bakery
- ½ cup raisins
- 4-5 very ripe Hachiya Persimmons*
- ½ lemon, zested and juiced
- 1 tablespoons Vanilla Extract
- 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
- ½ cup Butter
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- 1 Egg
- 1 ½ cup AP Flour
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon Ginger
- ¼ teaspoon Cloves
- 1 cup Walnuts (toasted and chopped)
- ½ cup Dates (chopped)
- Sugar for sprinkling
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a 10-in cake pan with parchment. Soak the raisins in a cup of warm water for ten minutes, drain and finely chop. Remove the stems and the skins from the persimmons and place in blender or food processor with the lemon juice. Puree until smooth.** Measure out 1 ½ cup of puree. Add the vanilla and baking soda to the puree and whisk together. Set aside. In a stand mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar salt and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Incorporate the egg and then the puree mixture. Then mix in the flour, spices and baking powder just until combined. Fold in the raisins, walnuts and dates. The batter will be thick so scoop and flatten into the pan. Generously sprinkle the top with sugar and bake for about 45 minutes. The top should bounce back when tapped and if you’d like stick a toothpick in the middle it should come out clean. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes then remove from the pan to finish cooling. Once cooled, dust with powdered sugar before serving. This cake can be tightly wrapped and kept up to 3 days.
*It is super important to use soft almost jelly-like Hachiya persimmons, these are normally the ones that grocery store. Make sure they're soft and ripe before pureeing. Do not use Fuyu persimmons, they are too hard and can be used raw in a salad. Persimmons are a fall seasonal fruit, high in Vitamin C. Originated in China, persimmons are now grown in California.
**The persimmon puree may leach out its water on you, that is okay, once the baking soda and vanilla is added it will hold together.
