Name: Eleanor Chang
Class Year: 1978
Country of Residence: United States

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

In Hong Kong where I grew up, Hachiya persimmons are almost always eaten raw. There is nothing like the superb delicate taste of a sweet persimmon. Often, we have to wait weeks for them to perfectly ripen to almost mushy for eating as the unripe fruit would make your mouth pucker. To help hasten the ripening process, the persimmons would be stored in the container along with the rice. Around Lunar New Year, persimmons are particularly popular as they are considered auspicious for the new year and dried persimmons are offered to guests or as gifts. 

After coming to in the U.S., persimmons did not appear on my radar until I moved to San Francisco. The local Chinatown grocery markets not only carry the Hachiya persimmons, they also have the Fuyu variety which I had  not come across before. It was then that I found out that persimmon trees grow in America, but most of the time, the fruits are left hanging on the trees to look like ornaments for the holidays. 

I bought the “Beard on Bread” cookbook to learn how to bake and found that it included a recipe for persimmon bread. The ingredients made it sound like it is for a fruitcake until I baked it for the first time. That was the start of a very beautiful relationship! For the last 20 years, I would start baking persimmon bread around Thanksgiving to serve at parties and to give as holiday gifts to friends and family. Everyone seems to want more of this “fruitcake.”

Persimmon Bread

Makes two 9-inch loaf pans
Takes approx. 15 minutes to assemble and 60 minutes in the oven***

Ingredients:

3-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground mace
2 to 2.5 cups granulated sugar *note: my preference is 2 cups or slightly less, especially if you add the raisins
1 cup melted butter, and cooled to room temperature
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Cognac or bourbon *note: my preference is VSOP Cognac, expensive but worth it
2 cups persimmon puree (the pulp of about 4 medium, very ripe persimmons – not necessary to peel) *note: I only use very ripe Hachiya persimmons although you can use Fuyu persimmons too if they are very ripe.
2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
2 cups raisins (optional)

Instructions:

– Sift all five dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. 

– Make a well in the center and add the melted butter, eggs, Cognac, persimmon puree, and, if you like, the nuts and raisins.

– Mix the dough until it is quite smooth.

– Butter and flour two loaf pans, fill them about three-fourths full, and bake for one hour at 350 degrees (F) or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  ***If you use mini-loaf pans, it makes 6 loaves, bur reduce baking time to 45 minutes and test for doneness

– Cool the loaves in the pan and turn out on a rack.

– Wrap in foil after cooling if you wish to keep them.  They will keep nicely from 1 to 2 weeks and very good toasted for tea or breakfast. The Persimmon Breads take well to being frozen, too.

Source: James Beard’s “Beard on Bread”