Persimmon Pudding

It's persimmon season! Every year, my great uncle's trees bless us with more fuyu persimmons than we know what to do with. I've shared lots of recipes over the years and suggestions for what do with the fruits besides eating them plain, and it's become a Thanksgiving tradition to whip up something with persimmons.

I asked my mom what she wanted to see this year, and her answer was persimmon pudding!


There are two basic types of persimmon, or kaki (柿): the squat Fuyu that can be eaten crisp like an apple or the heart-shaped Hachiya type that is ripened until jelly-like inside. The Hachiya cannot be eaten hard because it is very astringent unless fully ripe.

Now persimmon pudding is traditionally made with the Hachiya type (or the wild American native persimmon which is similar in texture to the Hachiya), however it can be made with fuyu. You just need to let them over-ripen to a jiggly state. Generally speaking, there's always some of our fuyu that manage to overripe before we get through our bunker crop!

No matter what variety you have on hand, make sure they are jiggly-about-to-burst ripe. We want to highlight that custardy texture of the pulp in this recipe.

Persimmon Pudding

1 cup overripe fuyu persimmon pulp (or regular mushy-ripe hachiya)  
1⁄2 cup sugar
3 eggs  

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon    
1 cup milk
1⁄2 stick butter (1⁄4 cup), melted

Preheat your oven to 325°F, then lets prepare that pulp: it's a little messy any which way you do it, but I found rather than trying to peel it the best way was to cut each persimmon in half and then used a spoon to scoop out the gelatinous flesh. Please check for seeds! I needed about 3 fuyu to equal a cup. This isn't exact, so if you're a bit shy of a cup, this recipe will still work.

Place the pulp into a mixing bowl and stir in eggs, sugar, milk, and melted butter until well combined.

In a separate large mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

Pour in the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine. Pour this batter into a greased 9x9" pan and cook for about 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cut into squares and serve warm with ice cream, custard, or whipped cream.

Note: this refrigerates and reheats fantastic! Also you can try it cold!

See also:
Chai Persimmon Sorbet
Fall Fruit Salad
Fuyu Kaki Bundt
Kaki Kohaku Namasu