We’ve gotten a ton of secondhand produce (LOL is that a term? What else would you call it when someone gives you their excess produce?) this year & it has been wonderful experimenting with items I haven’t worked with much before. There was a bag full of persimmons sitting on our counter for a few days and I was unsure of what to do with them. The only other time I’ve made anything with persimmons is these Rose tarts. I put up a question box in my instagram story, asking if anyone had persimmon recipe ideas & one person suggested Joy the Baker’s Persimmon Pudding but I decided on her Persimmon Bread. I made a few tweaks & it became Persimmon & Pear Bread instead.

Easy persimmon & pear bread recipe

Prep Time: About 30 mins | Cook Time: About 1 hour | Servings: About 8 / loaf pan

Easy persimmon & pear bread Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups sifted AP flour (I don’t have a sifter so I used a strainer/colander)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (then melted)
• 4 large eggs (I used 3 duck eggs, because they were HUGE), at room temperature
• 2/3 cup bourbon or other brown liquor of choice
• 1 cup persimmon puree (4 small persimmons)
• 1 cup pear puree (2 medium pears)
• 2 cups walnuts, toasted & chopped
• 2 cups raisins (I used golden)

Note: I think you could swap out a lot of different fruit purees for this. It is very versatile!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease & flour 2 loaf pans.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg and sugar into a large bowl. Mix.
3. Toast the walnuts in a pan briefly, then chop. Peal the persimmons and pears, dice, then puree. Melt the unsalted butter.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add melted butter, eggs, bourbon, persimmon & pear puree, walnuts & raisins. Mix until evenly incorporated.
5. Pour mixture into prepared loaf pans, leaving about an inch of space for the bread to rise.
6. Bake for about an hour, but check occasionally. It should be brown on top & a toothpick or skewer stuck into the bread should come out clean.

The bread is delicious out of the oven, after cooling off a bit! Though you can really taste the different fruits the following day. I’ve also heard that if you put cream cheese on a slice it tastes like an even better version of carrot cake! It makes a delicious breakfast, snack or dessert!

Happy Baking,

Corey