LAURA LEE ALICE
COOKS
®
Ever since I can remember, persimmon pudding graced our dinner table
multiple times during the autumn months. The tangy fruits would drop to the
ground when ripe, and we had to gather them quickly before the opossums
got to them.
Persimmon pudding is one of those dishes that's in a class by itself. The
persimmon trees that I grew up with are hard to find. They had very small
fruit, which had more seeds than pulp. These days you are more likely to see
other versions that offer more pulp, such as Fuyu or Hachiya. Fuyu are the
ones that I find most often at the store.
• You can usually tell if they're ripe by their smell. It's very rich and
aromatic. To me, it smells wonderful!
• The Fuyu persimmons are slightly soft when ripe. I remove the core
from the top. Then I peel, slice, and chop; using my immersion
blender to purée. (See the video) You could also use a food
processor. (Inside of a Fuyu persimmon pictured below).
• The Hachiya persimmons (pictured below) need to be VERY soft to be ripe.
For these I just cut off the stop at the stem end and scoop out the flesh.
out the flesh. It has a reddish, transparent look to it.
Ingredients
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• Small pinch of nutmeg (optional)
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• 1 cup puréed ripe persimmon pulp
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup butter, melted and cooled
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Grease an 8x8x 2-inch baking pan or dish*
Instructions
1. In a large bowl, sift flour with all the dry ingredients. Thoroughly mix
the rest of the ingredients in the other large bowl; add to the dry
ingredients, while mixing, by small amounts until everything is mixed
well.
2. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top; bake for about 1
hour or until a thin knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Can
be served warm or cold. Keep tightly covered in the refrigerator.
* An 8x8x2-inch baking dish holds 8 cups when full. You can use
something equivalent by filling with water and measuring the
amount of water it holds.
Cut out the core!
Recipes are like stories; they can change from person to person. Everyone has their idea of how a recipe should be, even
though it may have changed from the original. We will never know the true author of the original recipe, regardless of
what some may say. That's why I go back and look through the oldest cookbooks that I can find. Sometimes it's not the
recipe in the books that I find, but the tiny pieces of handwritten recipes and newspaper articles that are stuck within
the pages. That's where the real story is, finding those simple Southern recipes. -Mac