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.
Lisa
My hometown of Mitchell Indiana has an annual Persimmon Festival the last full week of September. It has been going on 50+ years. We have a persimmon pudding contest, a persimmon novelty desert contest and of course the Persimmon Queen contest. They even sell persimmon ice cream faster than they can churn it! All things Persimmon!
My aunt ran a restaraunt in downtown Mitchell, and during festival week, my mom would make over 70 puddings for my aunt. Getting those persimmons separated from their seed is hard work! I once told my dad that if they made people in prison do this, there would be a lot less crime!
Joanna V
Persimmon pudding and cookies, were a part of my Indiana childhood – after moving away I always wondered why no one else seemed to bake with them. Thanks for the great photos and recipe, and for the explanation of Fuyu vs Hachiya – maybe now I’ll pull out my mom’s recipes and bake with them again.
Susie Zanandrea
The persimmons I pick from a neighbor’s yard here in Indiana are tiny things that we don’t harvest until they fall on the ground, that is if we beat the critters to them (raccoons and other wild things love them). Deriving their pulp is messy business, but ah, the resulting pudding is dark and sumptouously rich. I think I’ve gathered three or four recipes for the pudding over the years. These days, though, I usually use a friend’s recipe to make persimmon cookies – little bites of heaven in the fall.
Molly
how crazy is it that you posted this?!?! I belong to a local fruit/veggie co-op and I just got the email with the list of what we’ll be getting tomorrow. I quickly shot back an email, “Persimmons???? What in the heck to I DO with persimmons?”
Right after hitting send, I checked my google reader and up popped your post…bring it on persimmons…bring.it.on.
Ket
This Hoosier girl is LOVING your ode to persimmon pudding! I’m right back there with you in the fall of ’76 — not appreciating that pudding nearly enough but the thought of it now sets my mouth to watering! (I’m pretty sure my grandmother had that same recipe from the same newspaper, too.)
Oh, my. Gonna have to find my way to the farmer’s market this weekend and make this for my daughter. Yum!!!
on the rocks
I really wish I didn’t live in an apartment so that I could sneak into my neighbor’s backyard. I doubt they are growing fruit on their porch!
Laura Flowers
I only wish we could grow those things here! I love your mom sneaking a peek into the neighbors yard! What a great post Joy!
Laura
Anna
My dad’s family is from Indiana, so this brings back some memories of my grandmother’s persimmon pudding. Her recipe had a lovely ‘hard sauce’ to be poured over the warm pudding…I have no idea what was in the sauce, but it was mostly sugar, for sure.
Meg
Joy, persimmons are one of my most very-favorite things! Thank you for posting this. Last fall I made a persimmon pie, and it was terrible. The inedible sort of terrible. Eww. I haven’t tried baking with persimmons since, but now I’ll have to try again.
Frozen hachiya persimmons also make a great sorbet.
I agree about the cartoon-ish qualities of persimmon trees… they’re supercute. :)
Neha
Love the pics and the narrative. Persimmon pudding sounds very interesting. Will try sometime.
Christine
Ooh… I love ‘simmons. For those of you who have never tried one — you don’t know what you’re missing! Slice em and sprinkle them with just a touch of salt (yes, salt), a pinch of sweet, mild chili powder, and a spritz of lime juice. Heaven!
The Duo Dishes
Persimmon pudding? Who woulda thunk? We’re going to work with/taste persimmons for the first time this weekend in a recipe. Not sure how they even taste, so it’ll be a fun experience!
Misti
WOW!!! I’ve never seen persimmons that big!!! They look like orange apples!! I come from Indiana and we have persimmon trees EVERYWHERE!!! The nice Hachiya variety. Not surprised you got the recipe in Indiana. We’re proud of our persimmons. Looks like those of you in California have a right to be proud too!!! Beautiful pictures Joy!!! I’ll be thinking of you next time I make a persimmon pudding!!!
Catherine Eng
Mmm!!! Sounds amazing as always joy!!
-Catherine eng now 12!