Persimmon Bread

Persimmon Bread

This persimmon has a royal pedigree in that it came by way of David Leibowitz from James Beard himself.  David Liebowitz has a great blog, and I love his recipes, but James Beard is, well, James Beard.  You know this will be good.  I used David’s version, but modified to put just what I do below, as opposed to some different options he gives in his recipe.  I generally like options, but this bread was so magical, I didn’t ever want to have it not taste exactly like this.

Print

Persimmon Bread

Two Large Loaves

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups sifted flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup melted unsalted butter and cooled to room temperature
  • 4 large eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten
  • 2/3 cup bourbon or whiskey
  • 2 cups persimmon puree from about 4 very soft persimmons
  • 1 1/2 cups pecans toasted and chopped
  • 1 cup dates chopped small
  • 1 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

  1. Prepare 2 loaf pans (baking spray or butter/flour).
  2. Preheat oven to 350ºF degrees.
  3. Sift the first 5 dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  4. Make a well in the center then stir in the butter, eggs, liquor, persimmon puree then the nuts and raisins.
  5. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Recipe Notes

You can use either the astringent or non astringent type of persimmons, (Hachiya and Fuyu respectively) but you must make sure they are dead soft.  Like a tomato that is way way past ripe.  Almost like a completely bruised banana held in a peal.  Simply slice off the peal, then scoop out the super soft puree.