On a whim, I bought a couple persimmon fruit at the local grocery store. I always enjoy the challenge of finding something to do with unusual ingredients. I don’t usually see them in the stores and haven’t worked with them since I lived in South Carolina. So that has been over fifteen years.

Persimmon is an Asian fruit. To me it has a little melon flavor and texture. When I was looking up what to do with them, the majority of the suggestions were to bake with them. Apparently, it can be used to swap in with pumpkin on a 1:1 basis. Note: this is a double recipe, so it makes two 5×9 loaves.

  • 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3 cups pumpkin puree/persimmon
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup walnuts

We also had some leftover pumpkin so I mixed the two of them together. I used the immersion blender to unify the pumpkin and persimmon. Pre-heat the oven 350 degF while you are assembling and mixing all of the ingredients together.

Combine all of the dry ingredients together. Combine all the wet ingredients together. Once both are thoroughly mixed separately, combine the wet and dry ingredients together.

Once everything is mixed together, pour into two loaf pans and bake for an hour or so. Don’t forget to grease the pan before hand.

I paired this bread with some Vietnamese rice porridge. I kind of made up the recipe after looking at a bunch of different variations. Regardless, it was well received. I think it would pair well with any kind of soup. I also believe this would make good French toast as well.