Persimmon Pudding

I've been thinking about creating a recipe/cooking blog for a while now. I just had to come up with a name on it. Two of my daughter's suggestions were "Gosh! That's Good!" and "Recipes For Dummies". I don't think that the latter one would go over that well. I went through several names and finally it just dawned on me - Persimmon Pudding. It is one of my favorite foods of all time. It ranks right up there with chocolate in my book (shocking, I know). I almost hear angels singing Hallelujah when I eat it, it's that good. I was thrilled when I found that no one had taken that name on blogspot, and I quickly grabbed it.

So where did my love of persimmon pudding start? When I was a child. I remember many a fall that my mom would collect persimmons that had fallen off a persimmon tree (then you know that they are ripe), turn them into a pulp, and make pudding. Or freeze the pulp for later use. My favorite way to eat it is cold with real whipped cream (the fake fluffy stuff just won't cut it here!). Of course you can eat it warm or at room temperature. It's not a true "pudding". You bake it in the oven and you can cut it into pieces like cake. It has a very unusual texture, because of the persimmons, but it's heavenly. It's very dense, rich and moist.

When I was visiting my parents last fall my mom made a batch for me. I took the above picture from that batch. I can still taste it...yum...I loved every bite. It had been years since I had eaten it. We currently have a persimmon tree in our back yard, but it's growing very slowly. It produces about 9 small persimmons a year, not enough to make pudding. I can find persimmons at the grocery store in the fall, but they are the Japanese variety, and not exactly the same as the ones I'm used to.

My mother got this recipe from a neighbor, Fairney Bowman, in Indiana in 1978. Mrs. Bowman used to let her pick up persimmons under her tree and gave her fresh eggs.

So, after all that waiting, here is the recipe...

Persimmon Pudding

1 quart (4 cups) Persimmon Pulp
1 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter a 9 x 13 inch pan.
3. Cream together butter and sugar.
4. Add persimmon pulp and beaten eggs. Mix well.
5. Sift all dry ingredients together.
6. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk until well mixed.
7. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (this depends on how firm and dry you like it).

Serve warm, room temperature or cold with real whipped cream.