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How to Make Persimmon Pudding: A Holiday Treat
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Somebody at your holiday table is going to point at this dish and ask what it is. Tell them it’s persimmon pudding and enjoy the confused look, because it doesn’t wobble and it has never met a box of instant mix. What it does have is a soft, dense crumb that lands somewhere between spice cake and custard. It has a deep amber color that looks like late fall in a baking dish. Our version is built on Fuyu persimmons. We blend them into the batter and slice them on top, with California prune puree and a splash of dessert wine.
Wait, Why Is It Called Pudding?
Aida of Salt and Wind, whose Spiced Persimmon Pudding inspired this one, points out that the dish only earns its name in the English sense of the word. Here in the States, pudding means something you eat with a spoon out of a cup. What lands on your plate is closer to a spiced, slightly boozy persimmon cake with the texture of a gooey brownie.
The dessert itself is pure Americana. Persimmon pudding is a traditional baked dessert with deep roots in the Midwest and the South. Old-school versions start with the jelly-like pulp of very ripe wild native persimmons or Hachiyas, mixed with flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter, and warm spices. In the oven, it puffs up, then sinks into something dense and moist with a caramel-like sweetness, a lot like a relaxed gingerbread. Tradition calls for serving it warm, usually under a cloud of whipped cream. Nobody needs a persimmon pudding contest ribbon to impress a crowd with this one.
Persimmons: Know Your Fuyu from Your Hachiya
Drive through California in late fall, and you’ll spot them: bare branches hung with glowing orange fruit. Persimmons look more like ornaments somebody forgot to take down than fruit on a tree. They are one of the Golden State’s great cool-weather treats, but they don’t all play by the same rules. Grab the wrong one at the wrong moment, and you’ll know it instantly. Most persimmons grown in California fall into two camps, Fuyu and Hachiya, and knowing the difference matters.
Fuyu are the easygoing ones. They’re squat and flat on the bottom, a lot like a tomato. You can eat this variety while they’re still firm. Slice one like an apple for a crisp, honey-sweet snack. Or toss it into a salad with greens and toasted nuts.
Hachiya ask for more patience. They’re taller, with a pointed, acorn-like. This variety is loaded with tannins that will leave your mouth dry and puckered if you bite in too soon. Let them ripen on the counter until they feel soft as a water balloon and almost jelly-like inside. Then scoop out the pulp for breads, cookies, puddings, and smoothies. Want to speed things up? Tuck them in a paper bag with an apple or banana. Wait it out, and you’re rewarded with something rich and custardy. Rush it, and you’ll regret it.
Hachiya usually gets this job, and plenty of bakers still swear by it. This persimmon pudding recipe breaks ranks and goes with fuyu persimmons instead. Of the two types of persimmons, Fuyu is the less astringent one, so there’s no tannic surprise waiting in the batter and no week of babysitting fruit on the counter. Once they’re blended in a high-powered blender, the persimmon pulp is ready to go.
A California Fruit with a Short Season
The window for California persimmons is tight. Look for them at farmers markets and grocery stores from early fall through December, then settle in for a long wait until next year.
Up in Placer County, Twin Peaks Orchards in Newcastle is famous for its persimmons, along with citrus and plenty of stone fruit. Camelia Enriquez took over her family’s fourth-generation farm in 2020 and set out to certify all 100 acres organic, a goal the farm has since reached. Her farmstand on Highway 193 stays open through December.
The Swaps That Make This Version Ours
We kept the original bones and changed a few things that really make this version scream Golden State! The biggest change is half a cup of California prune puree, which replaces half the brown sugar and one of the three eggs. Using prune puree for a third to half of the sugar in a recipe, and a quarter cup in place of each egg, is a brilliant way to give your favorite recipes a better-for-you glow-up. The puree also adds body and stability to the batter, helping a soft bake like this one hold its shape when you cut into it.
Flavor is the other payoff. Prunes naturally pair well with baking spices like cinnamon and allspice, so we turned up the spice and added ground ginger to the mix. Making the puree only takes a couple of minutes in a blender or food processor, and our blog post about prune puree walks you through the simple steps.
Brandy is out, too. A quarter cup of port or dessert wine from California goes in right after the melted butter, adding a mellow, grapey depth that suits the fruit better than a sharper spirit.
Bring On Persimmon Season
Persimmons spend most of the year off the radar, then show up in a blaze of orange right when the calendar gets busy. Pick up a bag of Fuyu the next time you spot them, and you can have this pudding in the oven that same afternoon. No counter-watching required, which leaves more time to argue over who gets the corner piece.
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Spiced Persimmon Pudding
Ingredients
For the prune puree
- 1 lb pitted California prunes
- 1 ¾ cup boiling hot water
For the persimmon puree
- 8- 10 medium-sized very ripe Fuyu persimmons (about 2 cups pureed)
- For the persimmon pudding
- 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1 large orange zested
- 2 cups persimmon puree
- 1/2 cup prune puree
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 8 TBSP unsalted butter, melted and briefly cooled, plus more for the baking dish
- 1/4 cup dessert wine; we used Quady Electra Black
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
For serving
- 1/3 cup raw pistachios, chopped roughly
- sweetened whipped cream
- 1 to 2 firm Fuyu persimmons, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Make the prune puree. Add the prunes and hot water to a high-powered blender and blend until smooth. Measure out 1/2 cup and refrigerate the rest for up to 4 months for use in a variety of recipes. Clean the blender carafe.
- Make the persimmon puree. If very ripe and soft there is no need to peel the Fuyu persimmons. Simply remove the leafy top and toss the persimmon into the blender. If it is still very firm peel each Fuyu, trim off the leafy top and chop roughly. Add the pieces to the high-powered blender and blend until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Measure out 2 cups and save any extra persimmon puree for another use.
- Heat the oven to 350°F (180℃) with a rack in the middle.
- Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and orange zest in a large bowl to break up any lumps. Butter a 13-by-9-inch (23 × 33 cm) baking dish and set it aside.
- Make the batter. In another large bowl, whisk the persimmon puree, prune puree, half-and-half, brown sugar, and eggs until evenly blended. Whisk in the melted butter, dessert wine, and vanilla bean paste until just combined. Stir in the flour mixture in four additions, letting each one disappear before adding the next and scraping down the bowl as you go.
- Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared dish and bake until a cake tester in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.
- Serve. Serve warm or at room temperature. Top each square with crushed pistachios, a small dollop of whipped cream, and a thin slice of Fuyu persimmon.