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My parents in Idaho and my in-laws in California both have persimmon trees (even though according to every tree expert, persimmon trees don’t grow in Idaho, but Mom babied her two trees and this year there are probably 100 beautiful persimmons on their branches).
We love persimmons but up until this persimmon bread recipe, we were just eating them fresh. Have you tried them yet? They kind of taste like sweet pumpkins/apples – super delicious! It’s no wonder many Russian and Ukrainian people are smitten with them.
One of my readers, Janna A., generously shared this recipe with me last year but we didn’t have any persimmons at that point so I held on to the recipe until persimmons were back in season. I love this recipe as much as Vadim’s very popular banana bread.
The verdict: this one’s a keeper (in a make again and again sort of way)! It’s soft and moist, and every slice is studded with walnuts and raisins.Thank you Janna for this treasure of a recipe! Also, who wants to win a blendtec blender?? There’s one up for grabs at the bottom of this post. Humungo thanks to Blendtec who sponsored the giveaway!
Ingredients for Persimmon Bread:
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp real vanilla extract
3 cups fuyu persimmon pureed (a little over 1 1/2 lbs)
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp baking soda, sifted to make there aren’t lumps
1/4 tsp (generous pinch) of salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups all-purpose flour *measured correctly
1 1/2 cups walnut pieces, toasted
1 cup raisins
*To measure flour, scoop into the measuring cup with a spoon & scrape off the top
*Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure correctly
How to Make Persimmon Bread:
Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Butter two bread loaf pans. Toast walnut pieces on a dry skillet until aromatic and lightly golden then cool to room temp.
1. Remove tops of persimmon with a butter knife (I’ve broken the tip off a good knife doing this before, so I only use a butter knife now). Cut into quarters and puree (I use this blendtec to do it super fast). I love pureeing stuff in my blender because there aren’t as many parts to wash as with a food processor and it’s super fast resulting in a perfect puree).
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp vanilla. Mix in 3 cups persimmon puree and the melted butter (p.s. I did this in my mixer but you can totally whisk by hand).
3. Add 2 tsp of sifted baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt and 2 tsp cinnamon and whisk to combine. Whisk in 3 cups flour until blended.
4. Fold in 1 1/2 cups walnuts and 1 cup raisins until evenly dispersed and divide the batter between buttered loaf pans. Bake for 45 – 50 min or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min then turn out onto wire rack to cool to room temp.
So moist, soft and yummy. It’s a perfect breakfast or anytime bread! If you can’t make it right now, make sure to pin this recipe for later. You’ll thank me later ;),
Persimmon Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp real vanilla extract
- 3 cups fuyu persimmon pureed, a little over 1 1/2 lbs
- 10 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp generous pinch of salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, *see note below on measuring
- 1 1/2 cups walnut pieces, toasted
- 1 cup raisins
Instructions
Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Butter two bread loaf pans. Toast walnut pieces on a dry skillet until aromatic and lightly golden.
- Remove tops of persimmon with a butterknife (I've broken the tip off a good knife doing this before, so I only use a butter knife now). Cut into quarters and puree in a blender.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp vanilla. Mix in persimmon puree and the melted butter.
- Add 2 tsp of sifted baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt and 2 tsp cinnamon and whisk to combine. Add Whisk in 3 cups flour until blended.
- Fold in 1 1/2 cups walnuts and 1 cup raisins until evenly dispersed and divide the batter between prepared loaf pans. Bake for 45 - 50 min or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min then turn out onto wire rack to cool to room temp.
Notes
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
THE GIVEAWAY (ended)
One of you lucky ducks will win a Blendtec Designer 725 series blenda (that’s ‘cool’ for blender) and a bonus twister jar to go with it. I’m telling you this blender is a bad mama jama (that’s ‘cool’ for awesome – y’all better get with the ‘cool’ program so I don’t have to keep interpreting things for you, k?). Blendtec makes the fiercest blender I know of and it’s awesome for more than just smoothies. You can make soups, baby food, nut butters, whipped cream, ice cream, dips, this persimmon bread, juice,.. it’s a veeeeery long list.
To thank Blendtec for sponsoring the giveaway, be sure to give them a virtual high five by following them on Facebook and Instagram.
Just made and sampled this persimmon bread recipe. All I can say is WOW!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Randall!
We used this recipe for our first attempt at persimmon bread. Was so easy and turned out great.
Thank you for trying the recipe!
My neighbor has a large tree and it’s FULL of persimmons. He does not eat them and always offers them to me. When I walked into the house with some today my son got excited and said, “we can make persimmon bread!” He had tasted some at a local farmers market. We passed on the first few recipes we found and are so happy we decided on this one! We made six mini loaves and they are moist and delicious! We used 1/3 whole wheat flour and a little less persimmon pureé because we used the other kind of persimmon that is very soft when ripe. Worked perfect! Merci Beaucoup!!
My family LOVES this loaf. Fabulous recipe. Thank you Natasha. From Melbourne, Australia.
Thanks for the recipe. All my neighbors have a persimmon tree in their yard and no one knows what to do with them, except eat them when they are ripe enough. The first persimmons next year will be in my kitchen. Oh yes, I live in Croatia by the Adriatic Sea. A persimmon tree is a must have.
You’re welcome. I hope you love the recipe.
Way too much persimmon pulp in this recipe! My loaves were baked at correct temp & time. They we’re rising fine , then completely fell in middle.
They ended up gooey like brownies! Still taste good, but so disappointed. Can’t share with friends.
Hi Sherry, I’m sorry to hear about the challenges you faced. We believe we found the perfect balance with the ingredients used and have had great results with the bread never sinking. I recommend ensuring your ingredients including leavening agents are fresh, the proper ratios were used and the batter was not over-mixed. Lastly if you are at a higher elevation you may want to look into proper elevation adjustments that would need to be made to your oven temperature and bake time since that is crucial to baking bread. I hope this helps.
Hi Natasha!
What size loaf pans do you use? 9×5? 8.5×4.5? It can make a big difference, especially if pans are overfilled they won’t bake properly. I still have some rather soft Fuyu persimmons clinging to my tree, so want to try this recipe today to hopefully add to my persimmon recipe files!
Hi Stacey, we used Wilton 9×5 Loaf pans here.
Lovely recipe! I made a batch of this and it turned out wonderfully. I made the following substitutions:
1. Used dried cranberries instead of raisins
2. Didn’t roast the walnuts first.
3. Substituted whole wheat flour for 1/3rd of the flour.
4. Doubled the vanilla (because…VANILLA!)
It was amazing!
Thank you for sharing, Charles! So glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Would it be ok if I subbed chocolate chips for raisins. We dont like raisins. Also how long would it take to bake into mini loaves.
One of readers shared that they used a bit of chocolate chips instead of raisins and enjoyed it!
Just verifying…No need to peel skin off of the persimmons?
Thanks!
Hi Valerie! That’s correct.
Great recipe. Bread turned out like the pictures. My family enjoyed a little after dinner. I added a 1/3 spoon of ground cloves and ground nutmeg. Barely noticeable in bread. I don’t bake very often but this was easy to make and I am happy with the results!
That’s great, Kathy! Thank you for the feedback.
Made this recipe exactly as written (except I had no raisins so I subbed dried cranberry). Both loaves turned out perfect! Once I made a similar recipe but neglected to split into two pans, the center of my loaf caved in….perhaps that is what happened with some of the other users? Would recommend sticking to the raisins as suggested instead of cranberry, as they dominated the flavor and the raisin would be more subtle. Thank you for always making tried and true recipes for me!
Hi Jacie! You’re very welcome. I’m so glad you loved it.
Really delicious, moist spice bread. Two comments: I doubled the recipe, and perhaps because I had four loaves in the oven, it took more like 55-60 minutes to cook through. Also, the prep time listed is wildly unrealistic. Between slicing and pureeing the persimmons, toasting the walnuts, getting the eggs close to room temperature, and all the rest, I’d say prep took closer to 45-50 minutes. Still, a great recipe with good outcomes! Thank you.
Thank you for sharing, Kris!
I don’t know what went wrong, but this recipe did not turn out for me. I ended up throwing both loaves away, as they were like jello in the center after cooking them for more than an hour.
HI Bob, did you use a different variety of persimmon? There are 2 types – make sure you are using the correct one.
Hi I made the persimmon bread but my bread came out dark like a choc cake is it because there is 2teaspoons of baking soda in it
Thanks Audrey
Hi Audrey! Yes, it’s a reaction between the pigments in the persimmon and the alkaline baking soda in the batter that creates browning.
Would figs that I have in freezer be ok to substitute for persimmons, or do you think they would be too moist? Have never made fig bread before.
Hi Carol, to be honest, I haven’t tried that with figs to advise on the outcome. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.