Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Persnickety Persimmon

The other day I was reading my friend, Greenmama's blog (click HERE to visit) and she had a recipe for persimmon bread up.  Huh.  We have persimmons too.  But I've never done anythign with them, other than eat one off the tree.

My friends said, "What the heck is a persimmon?" when I told them I was making the bread.

Well, it's a frumpy little fruit.
And they aren't really ripe until they fall to the ground.
Ugly little things.  Tiny.

They have a taste similar to apricots or plums.  They have a pit.  Or two.  Or none.  It just depends.

The bread recipe calls for a cup of pulp.  So I smushed and removed pits for a bit to get my pulp.

And then I stole a few from the hubby's homemade wine-to-be stash to top off my cup of pulp.
Shhhhh.  Don't tell him.

The recipe is:
3 tbsp softened butter
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup persimmon pulp
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of cloves
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Bake at 350* for 45-50 minutes.

Now I got my goodies mixed up and it looked a little dry.  Nothing worse than a dry quick bread.  So I took the liberty of adding in 1/2 cup of applesauce.

And then, since I'm counting calories, I did the nutritional analysis using the Livestrong website.
171 calories, 7 grams of fat, 3.8 grams of protein per slice.

Finished product:
I guess it's a bit reminiscent of a less spicy pumpkin bread, if pumpkin bread had an apricotiness to it.
I know it sounds weird, but it's really very tasty!
Thanks, Greenmama, for the idea and the recipe (she said the recipe came from Laurel's Kitchen Breads Cookbook).

7 comments:

Jenny @ Practically Perfect... said...

I love persimmon pudding - it is SO good :-)

jp@A Green Ridge said...

I'm on my way down for a slice to go with AM java...:)JP

Anonymous said...

I hate to say this, but that very first picture looks like you are holding a cervix in your hand.

Laura @ Green Legacy Farm said...

How cool! I'm glad you tried it. The batter was a little dry, which is probably why my first loaf was crumbly. Adding applesauce was a good idea. I converted them into muffins this week, baking them at 375 for 15-18 minutes.

Sonya @ Under the Desert Sky said...

I have to say that I agree with your anonymous comment above; I, too, thought it looked like a cervix.

But, uh . . . other than that . . . it DOES seem like a tasty recipe.

Myya said...

WAY better then not doing anything with them! It looked & sounded good enough to eat :)

Maria said...

Yum!! Sounds delicious, and I'm going to pass the recipe on to my dad. Funny how the persimmons from your tree are so small! My dad's tree makes fruit the size of large apples. Maybe it's a regional thing!