Moist, delicious, hachiya persimmon bread with the wonderful flavors of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. A great way to make use of persimmons when in season. The cream cheese frosting is optional! Serve with an iced Americano on the side!
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This year, when my friend, Roselyn, dropped off her beautiful, home-grown Hachiya persimmons (like she does most years), I decided to create a new recipe with them.
I developed this recipe by taking some of the things I loved about my moist pumpkin bread recipe and tweaking it a bit. Why recreate the wheel if you don't need to? Am I right?
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🔖 Ingredients & Substitutions
- Persimmons - There are various persimmon varieties, but we will be using Hachiya Persimmons in this recipe.
- Nutmeg - There is a huge difference between freshly grated nutmeg and nutmeg powder. The scent and taste of freshly grated nutmeg is so much better than powdered nutmeg. For this reason, I only use freshly grated nutmeg.
🍞 How to Make Persimmon Bread
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Step 1: Grease and flour two 9×5 bread loaf pans.
Step 2: Thoroughly mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves in a large bowl. Stir in the walnuts.
Step 3: In a separate bowl, whisk oil, beaten eggs, vanilla, and both sugars.
Step 4: Whisk in the persimmon pulp. Add the dry ingredients to the persimmon mixture. Mix gently until combined.
Step 5: Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Decorate with slices of persimmons if desired. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
Step 6: Although I'm totally content with eating the Persimmon Bread as is, my family, on the other hand, prefers a thick layer of cream cheese frosting. The following cream cheese frosting recipe is optional.
Prepare Cream Cheese Frosting
Step 1: Beat softened cream cheese until smooth.
Step 2: Add softened butter and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
Step 3: Gradually add powdered sugar while mixing on low. Scrape down the sides, as necessary, and mix until you achieve a smooth consistency.
Step 4: Spread frosting over cooled persimmon bread.
🤷🏻♀️ Recipe FAQs
There are a few varieties of persimmons, with Fuyu and Hachiya being the most common varieties. Fuyu persimmons are much milder in taste than the Hachiya variety. They can be eaten when still firm and crisp, like an apple.
Fuyu Persimmons are great in salads, preserves, and can even be used to make wine. Their thin skin is edible, so there's no need to peel them.
Hachiya persimmons, on the other hand, are not palatable due to their high tannin content. This changes when the persimmons are very ripe and even mushy. When ripe, their flavor is more intense than Fuyu persimmons and tastes like honey.
Although they'll make your mouth pucker when unripe, they don't have a trace of sour flavor when ripe. The pulp is perfect for making persimmon bread, jam, or blending in your shake!
Depending on how firm the persimmon is, or what variety, making persimmon pulp is a breeze!
If making pulp with Fuyu Persimmons, blending them in a food processor would be the best option, since they're pretty firm.
Hachiya Persimmons get super mushy before they stop being astringent enough to eat. This makes them very easy to pulp. Applying slight pressure while holding them in your hand will easily turn them into pulp.
However, if you want to be more civilized, you can peel the skin off or even scoop out the flesh from within the skin and mash it with a fork.
👩🏼🍳 Pro Tips
- Mixing nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, and the like in the flour mixture first prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf.
- If you plan on decorating the top of the bread with slices of persimmons, you'll need to use firm hachiya or Fuyu persimmons. Allow room for expansion as the bread cooks.
- Use a Microplane to grate whole nutmeg instead of using powdered nutmeg.
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📖 Recipe
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Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease and flour two 9x5 bread loaf pans.
- Thoroughly mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Stir in the walnuts.
- In a separate bowl, whisk oil, beaten eggs, vanilla, and both sugars.
- Whisk in the persimmon pulp.
- Add the dry ingredients to the persimmon mixture. Mix gently until combined.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Decorate with slices of persimmons, if desired. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
- Beat softened cream cheese until smooth.
- Add softened butter and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Gradually add powdered sugar, while mixing on low. Scrape down the sides, as necessary, and mix until you achieve a smooth consistency.
- Spread frosting over cooled persimmon bread.
Nutrition
Notes
- Mixing nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, and the like, in the flour mixture first, prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf.
- If you plan on decorating the top of the persimmon bread with slices of persimmons, you'll need to use firm hachiya persimmons or Fuyu persimmons. Allow room for expansion as the bread cooks.
- Use a Microplane to grate whole nutmeg, instead of using powdered nutmeg.
Annie says
Had overripe Fuyu persimmons to use up, googled and came across this recipe. Having made this a few times, definitely a keeper - straightforward, easy and always well received by all
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Annie, Thank you so much for the review, I miss persimmons. My friend's mom used to drop some off every year when I lived in California. I wonder if she'd consider delivering some? 😜 Enjoy!
nancy lusk says
Nancy L
Can you use Fuyu Persimmons to make the bread ?
Hilda Sterner says
Hi Nancy,
I've never tried making it with Fuyu Persimmons before. I don't think Fuyu's have the same jelly-like texture as the Hachiyas. The ones I've had were pretty firm. If they do get that texture when overly ripe, then I would think you could use them in this recipe.
JanBinTN says
Has anyone tried this with nut flours, instead of wheat. Gluten free is what I’m needing and this looks so good! Thank you for any response to this question.
Hilda Sterner says
I've heard Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour works well in baked foods, although I haven't tried it myself.