Persimmon Spice Bread

Name: Persimmon Spice Bread
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 1 9x5-inch loaf (12 slices)
Ingredients: 2 to 3 ripe or over-ripe persimmons (enough for 1 cup purée); 10 grams (2 teaspoons) baking soda; 140 grams (approximately 1 cup) whole wheat flour; 70 grams (approximately 1/2 cup) unbleached all-purpose flour; 75 grams (approximately 3/4 cup) almond powder (also known as almond flour); 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice; 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 2 large eggs, at room temperature; 100 grams (approximately 1/2 cup) raw brown sugar or tightly packed light brown sugar; 75 grams (1/3 cup) melted unsalted butter, grape seed oil or canola oil; 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt or buttermilk; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1/2 cup raisins; 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

By Martha Rose Shulman

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Rating: 4(358)
Comments: Read comments

At my farmers’ market one vendor was selling over-ripe fuyu persimmons for $1 a pound and I bought a few pounds just to make purée, which I used for dense, sweet quick breads like this one and for muffins. According to Deborah Madison, persimmons contain enzymes that will react with the flour and prevent the bread from having a nice crumb, so you must first neutralize them by stirring baking soda into the purée. This also causes the purée to become gelatinous, but the gelatinous mash is easy to break up with a whisk and will dissolve when added to the batter. Freeze any leftover purée.

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Ingredients

Yield:1 9x5-inch loaf (12 slices)

2 to 3ripe or over-ripe persimmons (enough for 1 cup purée)
10grams (2 teaspoons) baking soda
140grams (approximately 1 cup) whole wheat flour
70grams (approximately ½ cup) unbleached all-purpose flour
75grams (approximately ¾ cup) almond powder (also known as almond flour)
1teaspoon ground cinnamon
½teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼teaspoon ground allspice
⅛teaspoon ground cloves
½teaspoon salt
2large eggs, at room temperature
100grams (approximately ½ cup) raw brown sugar or tightly packed light brown sugar
75grams (⅓ cup) melted unsalted butter, grape seed oil or canola oil
⅓cup plain low-fat yogurt or buttermilk
1teaspoon vanilla extract
½cup raisins
½cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the middle. Butter or oil a loaf pan and line with parchment. Oil the parchment. Cut the persimmons in half along the equator, remove any visible seeds and scoop out the pulp, which should be nice and soft. Purée with a hand blender or in a food processor fitted with the steel blade and measure out 1 heaped cup (260 grams). Freeze the remaining pulp.
Step 2
Stir 1 teaspoon of the baking soda into the persimmon pulp and set aside. It will stiffen into a gelatinous mass but don’t worry about it. Sift together the flours, remaining baking soda, spices, and salt.
Step 3
In a standing mixer fitted with the whip, or with a hand beater or whisk, beat together the eggs and sugar until thick and they ribbon when lifted with a spatula, 5 to 8 minutes. Beat in the melted butter or oil, the yogurt, persimmon purée, and vanilla and beat until the persimmon purée has blended into the mixture.
Step 4
At low speed, beat in the flour in 3 additions. Fold in the raisins and the optional nuts. Scrape into the loaf pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, until the bread is firm and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven, remove from the pan and allow to cool on a rack.

Tip

Advance preparation: The bread is best if wrapped once cooled and allowed to sit for a day, to let the spices mature. It will keep for 3 or 4 days at room temperature and freezes well.

Ratings

4 out of 5

358 user ratings

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Comments

Silicon Valley Chicken Farmer4 years ago

Love this. Have made it twice now, today made four loaves to give away for Thanksgiving (and two for us). Used unpeeled persimmons whirled in food processor, replaced sugar with 1T. molasses, walnuts with pecans, the spices w/2 t. pumpkin pie spice, and raisins with dried cranberries. Best use for the persimmons from our tree.

Jared B4 years ago

I've made this recipe a few times now and it's very flexible and forgiving. I use whole persimmons (peel and all) and I reduce the sugar by half, add a tablespoon of molasses, a half-teaspoon of ginger, orange zest, and pecans instead of walnuts. I also added a quarter cup of flax seed meal.

Ann Brown7 years ago

To make this recipe gluten free, I used all almond flour. I used 1/4 cup coconut sugar, 2 cups persimmon pulp, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1 teaspoon cardamon. I'll report back on the taste and texture once we dish it up.

TPot1 month ago

Muffins: 400 degrees, 22 minutes. Yield—12 regular sized They’re just out of the oven now and I can hardly wait to bite in!

NovaRunner4 months ago

A lovely loaf cake that makes good use of a glut of persimmons. I use 210 grams of a gluten free flour blend and 1/4 tsp of Xanthan gum to replace the ap and whole wheat flours, and the bread turns out beautifully with great texture.

Martha E5 months ago

Has too many ingredients, takes too much time. Three kinds of flour? Really? Sadly, it did not highlight the taste of the ripe persimmons, which is why I made a persimmon bread.

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