The Perfect Persimmon Bread Recipe

This persimmon bread recipe has been in the family for 3 generations! It’s easy and fun to bake, and a loaf of persimmon bread makes a great holiday gift. Try this easy recipe and enjoy the cozy, spiced, delicious bread you’ll make!

A while back, I shared a series of our family’s traditional recipes, and my aunt’s amazing persimmon cookies were among them. Well, it’s persimmon season again, so I pulled out my family recipe book and realized that she included her legendary persimmon bread recipe as well!

I’ve been eating this bread around the holidays for as long as I can remember, and to me it just tastes like home. Here’s the perfect persimmon bread recipe for you to share with your family and friends!

Psst — check out some of my other favorite things to bake in the winter and fall!

• Chai Spice Sugar Cookies
• Make Fall Treats // Gold-Splattered Pumpkin Spice Macarons
• Baked Apple Oatmeal Recipe (It’s Gluten-Free!)
• Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
• Monkey Bread Muffins
• How to Make Rum Balls
• Grammie’s Apple Pie
• Pumpkin Nut Roll
• Easy Beer Bread Recipe
• Mini Donut Recipe // Baked Pumpkin Spice Mini Donuts
• How to Make a 3D Gingerbread Christmas Tree

And if you love these recipes, be sure to sign up below for my VIP group, where I’ll send more fresh ideas straight to ya!

Baking with Persimmons

I shared recently on Instagram Stories that I was making persimmon bread and found out that not only have most people not tried it, but that lots of folks aren’t actually familiar with persimmons at all! So here’s a quick rundown.

Persimmons are tree fruit that kind of look like little tomatoes. There are two main varieties – fuyu and hachiya. I mostly deal with fuyu because hachiya persimmons have to be very ripe to be edible.

Like, so ripe they’re squishy and soft like a water balloon. (Then you can just cut the top off and eat the insides with a spoon, like jelly.)

If you eat a hachiya when it’s not ripe, the tannins will practically bowl you over. It’s an awful feeling and taste. To be fair, you can do other things with hachiya — dry them, bake with them, etc.

But! The fuyu persimmons can be eaten just like an apple, which we do a lot in the fall. (Even the kids love them.) And those are the ones I love to use to bake with, because I have easy access to a couple of fuyu trees and you can eat them both raw and baked/cooked.

How to Make Persimmon Puree

Most baking recipes that use persimmons call for them to be pureed. There are a ton of ways that you can do this; some people like to wait for them to ripen by themselves and then just use the soft insides, and some people like to freeze persimmons and then scoop out the soft pulp once they thaw.

But to me, the easiest way is to just chop them up and pop them in the food processor. If I’m using fuyu persimmons, I don’t even take the skin off.

Slice off the top, slice out the middle and any seeds, cut into rough chunks, and food process until it’s smooth. Easy peasy. I don’t find that keeping the skins on affects this recipe at all.

So let’s get to the good part, right? Here ya go.

The perfect persimmon Bread REcipe

Ingredients

• 2 c sugar
• 3 c flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 c milk (your choice; I use 2% or almond)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 TBSP melted butter
• 2 c persimmon pulp
• 1 c chopped dates
• optional: 1 c chopped nuts
• optional (but recommended!): 1 c chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Combine dry ingredients (sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt) and whisk together.
2. Add wet ingredients (eggs, milk, vanilla, butter, persimmon pulp) and mix until thoroughly combined.
3. Fold in dates, nuts, and chocolate chips.
4. If baking in a large loaf pan or bundt pan, cook at 325 for one and a half hours.
5. If using smaller loaf pans (as shown here), cook at 325 for about one hour. Check the middle of your bread with a toothpick at 50 minutes. If the toothpick comes out clean, the bread is done.

Note: If you’d like to add this to your recipe book, there’s a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post!

If you’re using small, individual loaf pans these make the perfect little breads to give as holiday or hostess gifts! The larger loafs are great for feeding families or bringing to parties to share.

My Favorite Loaf Pans for Gifting Persimmon Bread

Loaf Pans. A large loaf pan is a great size to bake the persimmon bread and gift to a family. It makes a wonderful, easy breakfast treat with a cup of tea or coffee!

Mini Loaf Pans. These mini loaf pans make adorable, tiny loaves. I love to make mini loaves and gift them with a pretty liner.

Mini Loaf Paper Pans. Use these pretty paper pans to gift your mini loaves after you bake them in the mini pans!

Let me know if you try our persimmon bread recipe this year. And if you love it, be sure to rate it below. xoxo

P.S. Here are some more great baking ideas for you!