Thursday, December 16, 2010

Persimmon Bread


In December and January you can find very good-looking persimmons at your local Farmer's Market. Not knowing which persimmons I should buy to make Persimmon Bread, I asked the farmer selling this fruit which type to buy.

There are two kinds of persimmons usually found in Santa Barbara farmer's markets: Fuyu and Hachiya.
The Fuyu Persimmons can be eaten right away in its crunchy form. Eat it like an apple or slice it and use in a salad. Speaking of Persimmon salad, I am determined to find the recipe used by the Huntington Gardens' Tea Room. They make a divine persimmon salad in what I believe is a parmesean vinaigrette.

The Hachiya persimmon is meant to be ripened until it looks extremely bruised and almost black in color. After at least a month of leaving the Hachiya on my kitchen counter I gave up and settled for a slightly soft, somewhat bruised persimmon. The food processor took care of the rest. I will warn you that you want to get them very ripe so you may want to put them in a paper bag with an apple for as long as it takes. After you puree the fruit (according to instructions) you are ready to make Persimmon Bread.

JAMES BEARD PERSIMMON BREAD on David Lebovitz's blog.

Notes: I added Courvoisier Cognac and skipped the raisins all together. After tasting it I can't imagine using whiskey and that many raisins. The Cognac was strong and overwhelmed the persimmons (as would any liqueur) but it was delicious nonetheless.

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