Find out how to turn your squishy-ripe Japanese/Asian persimmons into a moist and decadent spiced persimmon breakfast bread!
After a couple months of room temperature storage, the non-astringent Japanese persimmons we picked from our trees eight weeks ago are now soft and shriveled, having lost a significant percentage of their moisture.
Does that mean they’re no longer good? Quite the opposite…
Japanese persimmons stored at room temperature for two months taste great and are perfect for baked goods.
Do you make the best banana bread with firm, bright yellow bananas or squishy bananas that are way past where you’d eat them fresh? Well, the same principle applies to Japanese persimmons.
They might not look beautiful, but the flavor of these over-ripe Japanese persimmons is far more complex and concentrated than it was when the fruit was picked crisp but ripe. At this stage of ripeness, they’re also ideal for baked goods such as breakfast breads.
And that’s one of the secrets to making this spiced persimmon breakfast bread: use REALLY ripe persimmons that have been sitting for 6-8 weeks after harvest.
Spiced persimmon bread garnished with slices of ripe persimmons and a dusting of powdered sugar.
Recipe tips
In addition to using really ripe persimmons, here are a few other recipe tips:
1. Add nut flour.
We like to incorporate nut flours into our baked goods whenever possible.
We grow chestnuts and make chestnut flour each year. We also forage acorns to make acorn flour. We can say from experience that both of these nut flours work really well in this recipe. If we had to choose, we’d go with chestnut flour since it’s a bit sweeter.
If you don’t have chestnut flour or acorn flour, use a store bought organic almond flour instead.
2. Use dark muscovado sugar.
We don’t eat much sugar and don’t recommend you do either. However, the sugarcane plant is actually extraordinarily nutrient-dense in its unrefined form, even though it happens to contain high concentrations of a substance (sucrose) that isn’t exactly the best thing for your teeth or overall health.
Dark muscovado sugar is about as unrefined as it gets. It adds extraordinary flavor to baked goods, like this persimmon bread recipe. If you don’t have dark muscovado sugar, just use equal parts organic brown sugar instead.
Dark muscovado sugar creates a darker color in this persimmon bread – and an intensely delicious flavor.
3. Use whole persimmons, skin and all.
In addition to using well-aged Japanese persimmons (ours were stored at room temperature for about two months prior to making this recipe), don’t waste the skins! Many Japanese persimmon varieties have seeds, so you’ll want to remove any seeds prior to use.
Once de-seeded, toss your persimmons — with skins on — into a blender to make the pulp for this recipe. The pureed skins will not negatively impact the texture of the bread, they’ll just add a little bit of extra fiber in your diet.
Now, let’s get baking!
Spiced Japanese persimmon breakfast bread
Spiced persimmon breakfast bread
A moist, decadent breakfast bread made from very ripe, squishy Japanese persimmons.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat organic flour
- 1/2 cup nut flour (acorn flour, almond flour, or chestnut flour)
- 2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt unless you used salted butter, in which case no extra salt is needed
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
- 1 tbsp zest of one fresh lemon (ideally Meyer lemon)
- 5 mushy persimmons (or about 2 cups pulp)
- 2 eggs (chicken or duck)
- 1/2 cup dark muscovado sugar (use brown sugar for substitute)
- 1/2 cup grass-fed butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
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Remove calyx and stem from top of persimmons. Cut open fruit to check for seeds - remove any seeds if so. Put soft ripe Japanese persimmons in blender, skin and all, and blend until smooth.
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In mixer, beat together blended persimmons, eggs, dark muscovado sugar, room temperature butter, vanilla, lemon zest, and grated ginger until fully mixed.
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In separate bowl, mix together whole wheat flour, *nut flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. (*We recommend using either almond flour, chestnut flour, or acorn flour.) Slowly add dry ingredients into mixer with wet ingredients until fully incorporated.
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Pour batter into generously buttered bread pan. Cook for 50 minutes uncovered, then cover baking dish with aluminum foil (to prevent surface burning) and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until toothpick pulls out without liquid batter. Cool for 15 minutes in pan, then remove and place on cooling rack.
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Flavor is best after a day in the fridge. Slice and reheat both sides in lightly buttered cast iron skillet for best flavor.
We hope you love this moist and decadent spiced persimmon breakfast bread as much as we do, so let us know what you think!
KIGI,
Sweet! Enjoy other persimmon articles from Tyrant Farms:
- Japanese vs American persimmons: how to grow, forage, and eat
- How to store Japanese persimmons w/ recipes for each storage method
- Recipe: Sugar-free persimmon cranberry relish
- Recipe: Persimmon butter with blood oranges and maple syrup
- Recipe: American persimmon pie with chestnut flour crust and maple whipped cream
- Recipe: American persimmon seed tea
- Recipe: Gluten-free persimmon oat crumble
- Recipe: persimmon bread with oats, walnuts, and honey
- Recipe: Acorn flour & American persimmon cookies
- Recipe: American persimmon panna cotta
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