The only fruit tree we have in our yard (not counting our fig bush) is a Hachiya persimmon tree. We hate it. Hachiya persimmons can only be eaten when they are completely ripe and soft, otherwise they produce astringents that will leave your mouth hurting for hours. And even then, they’re not particularly tasty fruits.
There isn’t much you can make with them either – persimmon bread and persimmon pudding is about it. I decided to make some of the former and serve it as an hors d’oeuvre for my 2010 Christmas Eve dinner just so I’d have something to do with these damn things. I’d made persimmon bread before and I’d never been too impressed, but this one is actually pretty tasty. You can’t taste the fruit, but the fruit does help make it moist. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and I imagine I’ll make it again in the future so I can use those damn fruits.
This recipe produces 2 loafs, you may want to half it. Even though my persimmons are quite big, I needed about 3 persimmons per cup of pulp, but that may be because they weren’t fully soft (it’s late December, for God’s sake, they are usually gooey messes on the floor by now) and I threw away the harder parts.
Persimmon Bread
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups Hachiya persimmon pulp
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
3 eggs
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 2 9″x5″ loaf pans.
In a large bowl stir together the sugar, flours, oatmeal, baking soda, spices and salt until well mixed.
In a separate bowl blend the persimmon pulp, the apple sauce, the oil and the eggs until combined.
Add the persimmon mixture to the flour mixture and mix well. Pour into prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry – about 1 hour (but check at 50′).
Christmas Eve 2010 Menu
Marga’s Best Recipes
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