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How to make persimmons taste like holiday gingerbread

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The traditional Japanese art of making the dried persimmons called hoshigaki is a mind-bogglingly labor-intensive artisanal process.

The fruits of the acorn-shaped Hachiya variety are harvested firm, peeled by hand, strung up to dry for a month or so and manually massaged to break up their fibers and keep their flesh soft.

If all goes well (and there’s a lot that can go wrong), the surface of the finished product will be covered, as shown above, with a fine white powdered sugar naturally exuded by the fruit. The flesh within has a tender but chewy texture and a sweet, spicy flavor, like raisins and gingerbread.

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Read more in this week’s Market Watch column by David Karp, plus check out his photo gallery guide to what’s fresh this week at the farmers market.

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