This persimmon bread has the texture of banana bread, but it's even better because it is made with persimmons, my favorite winter fruit. It's got all the seasons winter spices, and just like how you use overripe bananas for banana bread, you get to use those overripe persimmons for this bread!
Baking with persimmons FAQ
- Use very ripe and mushy persimmons. The riper, the sweeter. Also, the mushiness of the ripe persimmon makes it so the persimmon can be evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Note that the batter is very wet, so don't concerned if it looks like wet like banana bread batter. I use a non-stick loaf pan.
- Fuyu or Hichaya? Although I prefer to eat slightly under-ripe Fuyu persimmons for snacks on the go, the over-ripe hichaya works best in the batter of this recipe. I use sliced Fuyu persimmons for the top of the bread.
- Discard as much of the persimmon skins as possible when baking for the smoothest texture.
Step by Step Persimmon Bread
Preheat your oven to 350F. Lightly grease your 9x5x3 loaf pan with butter or baking spray.
Get three bowls: 1 large, 1 medium, 1 small. In the medium bowl, sift the dry ingredients or whisk them together to break down any clumps (flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves). In the large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well incorporated. In the small bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla extract with a whisk, ~1 minute.
With a hand mixer or standing mixer slowly pour the egg mixture into the creamed butter and sugar. Mix well. Add the persimmon pulp. Gently mix with a spoon or rubber spatula to incorporate the pulp throughout the batter. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients ⅓ at a time. Mix until just incorporated. See image below.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Cook 1 hour until a toothpick inserted into the center just barely comes out clean. Do not overbake.
My trick to an extra moist persimmon bread...
Let the bread cool completely in a sealed environment. Use a plastic bag or large resealable container. Then, leave the bread overnight and enjoy it in the morning.
Love persimmons as much as I do?
Try this wonderful winter salad, that was a hit on last years Thanksgiving table... Persimmon & Goat Cheese Salad with Radicchio and Pomegranate.
Looking for more sweets to bake?
If you like this recipe, you'll love these other Fall/Winter bakes:
- Fresh Ginger Root Cake
- Cranberry Orange Scones
- My Perfect-Every-Time Pumpkin Pie Filling
- Ginger Cardamom Ghee Tea Cookies
Or check out all my dessert recipes & sweets here!
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Persimmon Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 eggs room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature, plus more for greasing your loaf pan
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 cup persimmon pulp Hichaya preferred
Instructions
- Preheat to 350F. Lightly grease your 9x5x3 loaf pan.
- In a medium bowl sift the dry ingredients. Flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla extract.
- With a hand mixer or standing mixer slowly pour the egg mixture into the creamed butter and sugar. Mix well.
- Add the persimmon. Remove from mixer.
- With a spoon or rubber spatula, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients ⅓ at a time. Mix with a rubber spatula until just incorporated.
- Pour into loaf pan*. Cook 48-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool completely. I let it cool overnight and have it for breakfast!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published in February of 2019, but was republished with step by step instructions, and tips October of 2019.
This looks yummy! Our tree is finally producing again, so I’m going to try this in a few days. I’ve got about a gallon of the fruit in the fridge, just waiting to be “squished out”.
Can I use "American" persimmon pulp for this recipe? Thank you!
Yes, as long as you wait until it is completely mushy and looks like it's rotten.
Only took half an hour to cook to completely dry with a skewer. Good thing I was putting some cheese toast in the oven or it would have been very overdone
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for letting us know! It is possible that your persimmons were not ripe enough, since that is where most of the moisture for this bread comes from. The recipe will cook faster without that extra moisture you get from really mushy persimmons. It isn't currently persimmon season in the US... may I ask where you got your persimmons from, if you used dried, if you used puree, and what kind of persimmons you used?
I am just surprised since there are over 200 reviews on this recipe and I've made it at least 3 dozen times myself.
I'd love to help you figure out what happened, so more information will be helpful.
Thank you,
Candice
I’m not Lisa but I was educated with your response and will definitely consider all those factors when I make your recipe in the near future
Really delicious recipe. I don’t like persimmons but I love this loaf cake. I like the recipe exactly as is (minus the fruit slices on top) but I’ve also made it with oil when I was out of butter and it turned out amazing. I’ve also made it without cloves when I ran out and it was still delicious. This one is going in my personal recipe book, I highly recommend it!
I'm so glad you love it and have made it so many times, Autumn. Thank you for sharing your success making it with oil instead of butter... enjoy!
Great recipe! I used coconut oil in place of butter and brown sugar rather than regular because that’s what I had on hand. The balance of spices and persimmon flavor is delish. It was gobbled up immediately!
Glad to hear it was enjoyed, Amber... thank you for sharing!
Delicious and very moist. I added walnuts and raisins. Delicious!
Thank you for sharing, Michele... I'm glad you liked it!
Lovely recipe—amazing aroma and flavor. I added 2/3 cup chopped walnuts (tossed in 1Tbsp flour so they wouldn’t sink to the bottom of the loaves). Because I wanted to give some of the bread as gifts I divided the batter into 3 mini loaf pans (baked 35-37 minutes). Next time I’ll add dried cranberries, too. Thank you for sharing the recipe. 💜
So glad you liked it, Bethann... thank you for sharing the cook time for 3 mini loaf pans!