Persimmon Bread - A Different Kind of Bread

Last Christmas we were given bags of persimmons

Since we have fans of banana bread, we tried swapping out persimmons for banana bread in our award-winning recipe. It didn’t work. Well, it worked, but the results were not what most people would call a “bread.” It was pretty dense. It was still good, but we knew it could be better.

So we cut back on the amount of puree used.

One of the obvious differences between bananas and persimmons is the water content. Persimmons carry along more moisture. Two ways to adjust this is to squeeze out some of the juice in a tea towel, or roast the puree in a flat roasting pan. Instead, this recipe adjusts the flour and adds baking powder and baking soda to compensate.

This recipe also uses two mini-loaf pans. I like the mini-loaf pans because the size of the slice is just right for a snack. If you want more, you can always have two slices of persimmon bread. Another reason is that it gives you two loaves instead of just one and that means you can keep one and share the other. A home-baked loaf of persimmon bread makes a great gift.

Ingredients

1 cup persimmon puree

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 6 1/2 by 3 in mini bread pans. To grease, you can use either an extra tablespoon of butter or cooking spray. After greasing, add an extra tablespoon of flour to each pan and shake, turn and tap until the bottom and all sides are coated with flour. It doesn’t have to go all the way to the top, but should be at least half way up. If there’s extra flour, discard it.

In a small bowl, combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a large bowl, blend eggs, sugar, melted butter and oil. Add persimmon puree. Fold in flour mixture and make sure flour is incorporated. Do not overmix or it will become tough. Pour batter into prepared mini loaf pans

Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Variations

As an option, add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins when adding the persimmon puree.

Frankly, I prefer my breads free of nuts and raisins unless they are ground up. If you like to have little nuggets of fruits and nuts, this bread will hold up to them.

Speaking of ground up nuts, one variation for this bread is found in the banana-bread recipe – ground nuts and oatmeal used to “flour” the pans after they are sprayed make a nice crust for the bread. Additional nuts/oatmeal with a sprinkle of brown sugar on the top of the bread give it a nice look and exterior crunch. That’s how I like to add nuts to my fruit breads.

Why I Would Make This Again

This is a pretty basic recipe and it is an excellent way to use up extra gifted persimmons. I like to make the bread and give a loaf to the

As mentioned before, a small loaf of persimmon bread is a great gift. Not for my mom, though. She is not a fan of persimmons. She loves the banana bread, but will pass on the persimmons. If you don’t have any persimmon avoiders, then it is a nice thing to pass around.

Persimmon bread is an uncommon type of bread and most family and friends are intrigued by it.

Persimmon bread, lightly toasted with butter in the morning is a great way to wake up.

Besides, it makes for a neat persimmon fruit sandwich