persimmon pudding

It's persimmon weather again.  Seven years ago, Gus and I discovered a tree full of ripe persimmons in an abandoned lot and so, on Thanksgiving night, we backed the truck up beneath the branches overhanging the road and picked a good bag full.  We then made persimmon pudding and sent a batch and the remaining persimmons to my dad in Colorado.  I even wrote out the recipe for him.  He said it was one of the best holiday gifts he had ever received and relished the pudding, complete with whiskey hard sauce.

Anyway, Josephine and I made persimmon pudding tonight from three ripe persimmons, which weren't enough for the recipe we got from my mom's 1976 Joy of Cooking, but we improvised with cream and butter and I tell you: it turned out beautifully.

Here is the recipe:

persimmon flesh, strained through a colander (usually 2 cups pulp)

Beat in: 

3 eggs

1 1/4 brown sugar

1 to 1 1/2 flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup melted butter

2 to 2 1/2 cups light cream

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 grated nutmeg

Bake at 325 in a 9X9 inch pan, or use individual pans (like I did).  Bake one hour or until firm. 

You could serve persimmon pudding with cream over it, a whiskey sauce, or sprinkled powdered sugar.  What I did was break out the Puderzucker Streuer, which some friends brought us from Austria.  It's basically a sieve through which to shake powered sugar.

I then tried to go all Martha and sprinkle the puderzucker over cut out paper leaves. 

Not bad!

Comments

[Diane]

Dear Julia and Josephine, I feel so lucky to have received one of your delicious persimmon puddings. Don't tell Rocky and Kyle but I ate them all by myself! Thanks for sharing. Diane