Dud of the Month

I have talked before about the Dessert of the Month program in the RD Mama household. It is really a win-win gift as I get to challenge my cooking skills and experiment making new things, while RD Papa gets to eat a yummy dessert of his choice. This month, for the first time in the 17-month history we got a recipe that flopped. Every other dessert has been fantastic and we always claim it is the best yet.

For October Tim picked out Caramelized Pear Charlottes with Persimmon Sauce. He often chooses items based on what fruit is in season and our farmers market is currently overrun with persimmons. I was excited for my first attempt at making charlottes; a buttered bread shell filled with spiced sauteed fruit, pears in this case. Notice I said October, while we are now clearly in November. We ran a bit behind schedule this month as Tim had trouble deciding and then the persimmons took their sweet time ripening. Or so I thought. After sitting on the counter for a week, banished to a paper bag with a banana for the last few days, I finally thought they were ripe enough to proceed. After getting the charlottes into the oven, I got to work on the sauce. I realized upon cutting the persimmons open something was amiss and tasted the fruit to test the flavor. It was so horrid, I wanted to scrape my tongue out and immediately made Tim verify my findings and join me in misery.

As it turns out, the persimmons were not quite ripe at all. The recipe specifically calls for Hachiya persimmons, which I had no experience with. All our persimmons eating experience has been Fuyus, the more commonly found variety in the US. Upon further research I found out that the tannin levels in Hachiyas are extremely high and they subsequently have a very astringent flavor if eaten before fully ripe.

So, some quick improvisation was in order. I made a raspberry coulis to accompany the pear charlottes instead. While I can't fairly judge the recipe without actually following it, the charlottes themselves were nothing to write home about. I can't imagine a perfect persimmons puree would have completely salvaged them. They tasted like soggy bread with applesauce inside. I think the pear flavor needs to be intensified a bit, and some additional spices may be in order. All in all this month's (really last month's) dessert was a disappointment and I am glad it is already time to attempt the next one and redeem myself.