Persimmon Bread Recipe

Photo courtesy of Daily Dish

Most know that deer love to eat persimmons, but have you ever tried one? If you've ever tried one before they are ripe you probably think cooking anything with persimmons sounds like a bad idea. But once they turn ripe they are sweet and are great to use for pies, breads, cakes and cookies. Once they turn a purple/gray color and get soft they are ready for picking (Usually after the first couple of frosts). 

This recipe is my pumpkin bread recipe, but I swapped the 15 oz can pumpkin for 15 oz of persimmon pulp. To me, ripe persimmons taste very similar and have the same consistency as a pumpkin. To get the pulp you will want to smash the persimmons into a bowl through a cone shaped collander, this way you don't get the skins or seeds in the pulp. We picked these and after smashing all of them through the collander we probably have about 4-5 cups of persimmon pulp. I put the pulp into zip-loc baggies, about 2 cups per baggie, and store them in the freezer until ready to use for cooking.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup cooking oil
• 4 eggs
• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup water
• 15 oz persimmon pulp

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans. 
• In an extra large mixing bowl, beat sugar and oil with electric mixer on medium speed. Add eggs & beat well; set sugar mixture aside
• In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg. Alternately add flour mixture & the water to sugar mixture, beating on low after each addition until just combined. 
• Beat in the persimmon pulp. 
• Spoon batter into pans
• Bake 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
• Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Wrap & store overnight before slicing (The recipe calls for this, but I never do this. I absolutely love warm bread right out of the oven!)

-Andrea Haas