Persimmon Pudding, from tree to table.
Step One: Find a neighbor with a gorgeous, almost cartoon like persimmon tree. Ask your Mom to help you pick persimmons… Mom always likes to help.
Step Two: Entice neighbor and Mamabear with the promise of fresh baked persimmon pudding if you’re granted access to their persimmon tree.
Step Three: Try this phrase, “Hey Neighbor! I think you’re just swell. Can I borrow a ladder? That’s one tall tree. Sweet… thanks.”
Step Four: If you decide to sneak a peek into the other neighbor’s yard while you’re up on that ladder picking persimmons… maybe you’ll want to be more subtle than my mother. I’m just sayin…
Step Five: Pick the ripest, softest persimmons. Way to be, Mom!
Step Six: Carefully place super ripe persimmons in bag to cart off home, thanking your neighbors Dan and Libby for their ladder and their abundant tree.
Step Seven: If you don’t happen to have a neighbor with a persimmon tree, I’m betting that the local farmer’s market will have some gorgeous Hachiya persimmons for you this time of year…. and you won’t need a ladder.
Step Eight: Call your favorite Aunt from Indiana and ask her to promptly send you all of the persimmon recipes she owns… that will be a lot. Seriously. Thanks Judy!
Let’s very quickly clear up any confusion you might have about persimmons. There are probably two types of persimmons that you might run in your search for the fruit this autumn. Fuyu persimmons are the squat little darlings that you can eat when they are hard. Hachiya persimmons are the more bulbous fruit that are best enjoyed super right and super soft. Hachiya persimmons are lovely for baking as they are super sweet… like eating nectar… dreamy.
Now… let’s talk about ‘Simmon Puddin’. When you think of Persimmon Pudding think of sweet and super moist bread pudding meets spice cake. If you can… close your eyes and think about a dessert that you grandmother might make in October 1976 if you lived in Indiana… now, you might not like this dessert as much as you like your grandmother’s chocolate cake, but you liked that she served her Persimmon Pudding with super melty vanilla ice cream… which made everything ok. There you go…. that’s Persimmon Pudding.
Persimmon Pudding
some old school Indiana newspaper 1976
makes 6 to 8 servings
2 cups fresh Hachiya persimmon pulp, removed from the skin
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon melted butter, plus more for buttering dish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9×9 baking dish and set aside
Stir the baking soda and sugar into the persimmon pulp and set aside. This mixture may thicken as it sits… that’s ok!
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Add to the persimmon mixture all at once and stir until flour is almost completely incorporated.
Whisk together milk, egg and butter and add to the persimmon and flour mixture. Batter will be very loose. Pour into the baking dish.
Bake for 1 hour covered with foil, or uncovered. If you make the pudding covered, you’ll have a very wet and moist pudding. If you bake the pudding uncovered, you’ll have a drier pudding topped with a bread like crust. I baked my pudding uncovered. Bake the pudding until it is firm but still very moist.
Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. Best served warm with vanilla ice cream.
Joeline Webber
In my childhood persimmons grew wild along the river near our family farm. I have no idea what variety we had down there in Northern Arkansas but tasty they were so I’m an addict. Fortunately my landlady’s son has a gorgeous persimmon tree that produces more than he can even give away… So I just took delivery of a 20 pound box… gonna try this recipe for variety. Thanks for posting it. I love old recipes.
AnnZ
Growing up in North Carolina, I have eaten Persimmon Pudding for years. We do not pick the ones that grow here until after the first frost. If you get them before that you will never eat them again. Mother made a persimmon pudding every year. I have looked for her recipe but this one sounds a lot like her’s tasted!!!
Sue McG
I happen to have a very sweet neighbor who has a persimmon tree and delivers a bag of ripe persimmons (and pomegranate) to my doorstep every year, now I’ll know what to do with them – thanks!
Shannon
thanks for the recipe! i tried it with buttermilk and really enjoyed it :) now if i could find a persimmon tree…
S
Loved the post: the story, the pictures and the recipe! We love both the textures and the flavours as they ripen: sweet and crunchy and the halwa texture with honey flavour is perfect for spoon samples.
Kirsty_girl
I’ve been thinking about making persimmon pudding for a couple of weeks but was too lazy to look for a recipe. This looks perfect. Persimmons are in season here in Japan now.
PatW
We had a HUGE wild persimmon tree in the yard at the house where I grew up in Kentucky. It was so old that if you dug up the ground anywhere near it, the dirt smelled like persimmons. And nobody in my family made persimmon pudding, although the lady who lived in the other side of the house did– and fortunately shared. In the years since, I’ve made it occasionally, using storebought ‘simmons, with good results.