With over 300 5-star reviews, this persimmon bread recipe has become a long-time reader favorite. The texture is super moist and fluffy, it’s the perfect combination of spices, and not too sweet.
Here’s what people are saying about the best persimmon bread they’ve ever had:
Want the complete scoop on baking with this fruit? Read my thorough persimmon guide.
🌟Why You’ll Love This Persimmon Bread Recipe
🧾Ingredients for Persimmon Bread
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
🧡 Pro Tip 🧡
Use very ripe and mushy persimmons for your puree. The riper they are, the sweeter they taste. Also, the mushiness of the ripe persimmon makes it so the persimmon can be evenly distributed throughout the batter. Discard as much of the persimmon skins as possible when baking for the smoothest texture.
👩🍳How to Make Persimmon Bread
Before starting, you will need to have three bowls ready: 1 large, 1 medium, and 1 small. You will also need your pureed Hachiya persimmon pulp.
🧡 Pro Tip 🧡
To make sure your bread retains its moist texture, let the bread cool completely in a sealed environment. Use a plastic bag or large resealable container. Then, leave the bread overnight and enjoy it in the morning.
📋Persimmon FAQs
Fuyu persimmons come into season around September and can linger into December. Hachiya persimmons tend to arrive later, usually from October through late December.
Persimmons are wonderful for baking. When they ripen to become mushy and sweet, they’re so easy to incorporate into different batters from persimmon cookies to persimmon pancakes.
Fuyu persimmons are small, squat, and can be enjoyed like apples – skin and all. When ripe, they’re sweet, slightly tangy, and perfect for snacking on.
Hachiya persimmons are longer and heart-shaped with a bright orange color. They’re incredibly astringent when not fully ripe. You must wait until they’re soft and ripe to eat them, or else they’ll taste sharp.
Absolutely! Persimmons can be enjoyed raw, and are extra delicious when ripe. Simply peel the skin (if it’s an astringent Fuyu) and slice it into wedges. You can also use them in salads, baked desserts, or even as a topping for yogurt.
They are not that similar. Apples are sweet and often have a tart edge, whereas persimmons are sweet with more of a honeyed flavor with warm spice, Unripe Hachiya persimmons are super astringent and sour, so wait until they ripen for a sweet taste.
🧡 Related Recipes
If you like this recipe, you’ll love these other creative ways to use persimmon in savory recipes and sweets!
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Persimmon Bread
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Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature, plus more for greasing your loaf pan
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup persimmon puree Hachiya preferred
Instructions
- Preheat to 350F. Lightly grease your 9x5x3 loaf pan.
- In a medium bowl sift the dry ingredients. Flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla extract.
- With a hand mixer or standing mixer slowly pour the egg mixture into the creamed butter and sugar. Mix well.
- Add the persimmon. Remove from mixer.
- With a spoon or rubber spatula, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients 1/3 at a time. Mix with a rubber spatula until just incorporated.
- Pour into loaf pan*. Optional to top with thinly sliced persimmons.**
- Cook 48-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool completely. I let it cool overnight and have it for breakfast!
Video
Notes
- Use very ripe and mushy persimmons. The riper, the sweeter. Also, the mushiness of the ripe persimmon makes it so the persimmon can be evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Note that the batter is very wet, so don’t be concerned with this texture.
- For zero sticking when baking, I use a non-stick loaf pan.
- Fuyu or Hichaya? Although I prefer to eat slightly under-ripe Fuyu persimmons for snacks on the go, the over-ripe hachiya works best in the batter of this recipe. I use sliced Fuyu persimmons for the top of the bread.
- Discard as much of the persimmon skins as possible when baking for the smoothest texture.
Hi, I just wanted to share that I put the very ripe persimmons in a food processor with the skin on. It purées very smooth then I make fruit leathers with it. Any leftover I measure and put in ziplock bags to freeze. I’m anxious to try your recipe. I was thinking chopped walnuts and/or ground flax seed would be a good addition. Thankyou
Great tip, Cindy… thank you for sharing! I also freeze the pulp after I process it in the food processor, but I do remove the skin, and then I freeze it in ice cube trays.
And the bread is great with both walnuts and chocolate chips. Never tried it with flax seed. Let me know how it goes if you try it that way!
I made this and just substituted Almond Flour for the All Purpose Flour, and it still turned out AMAZING!! I was a little worried when I saw how “liquidy” the batter was, but really appreciate that you gave that note as it calmed my worries. The bread rose nicely and tasted phenomenal! It was a perfect blend and spices and persimmon – nothing overpowered -very balanced! Thank you!
That makes me so happy to know you can substitute with almond flour and it still comes out great, Christine… yay! I really appreciate you letting me know. So glad you loved it.
Hi! Do you have any suggestions on gluten free flour substitutions for this recipe?
Unfortunately, I do not have experience with gluten-free flours, but here is an article that might help: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/converting-recipes-to-gluten-free/
This was off the charts. I stumbled on this blog trying to figure out what to do with mushy persimmons because they are too expensive to throw out!!! My daughter is GF. I substituted bobs red mill GF blend. Added 1/4th tsp of Xantham gum and we have made it 2x in 3 days. I would just echo that for a newer oven I baked it at 300 for 1 hour. The first time it started to burn after 30 min despite being mushy on the inside so I just lowers the temperature. I also sprinkled some sugar on top for a little crunch. Amazing!!!
Sounds amazing, Sharon!! Thank you for sharing your adaptation. I’m making a few loaves tomorrow to test what everyone has been saying, and appreciate the tip!
Hi,
First timer here. How do I know when the persimmon is soft enough on the outside to cut it in half and scoop out the mush? What should the outside skin feel like? Thank you.
Hi Tarja,
You want it to be about as mushy as a peach you would throw away or a mushy banana. If you gently press on the side of the persimmon, it should easily press in. The skin usually remains in tact and firm (sometimes wrinkled), which is why I dispose of it and don’t use it when baking. Take a look at the photo in the post of me with the persimmons on the cutting board… that is the right amount of ripe-ness. There is a clearer shot of the persimmons in this post where I talk about freezing persimmon pulp.
Let me know if you still have any questions.
I didn’t have cloves so I substituted lemon zest. Excellent recipe!
Sounds like a delicious substitution… glad you liked it, Lisa!
Made Lucille Carmichael’s recipe with half the sugar along with nuts etc I it was much like a fruit cake very good and very dense want to try this with some frozen persimmons to be like a banana bread.
and not I -always proofread before posting-Wade
Looking forward to hearing how it goes! I’ve never made it with frozen persimmons, but I imagine it works great.
I love this recipe! So moist! I used only 1/2 cup sugar instead of 3/4 because my fuyu persimmons are ripe & very sweet. I definitely will make this again!
Yay! I’m so happy to hear it, Antonia. And glad to hear your persimmons were very ripe and sweet. Enjoy!
I had two huge overripe persimmons so I made a 1.5 times batch and I added pecans. Delicious! Super moist. I recommend freshly ground nutmeg and cloves.
It smelled great! However, I followed the directions for a glass pan. It came out charred ☹️ The regular directions and temp. Would have been just fine.
Thanks for sharing, JT. Really appreciate your feedback… this is something I am scheduled to recipe test as soon as I get my kitchen back so we can resolve the glass pan vs. non-stick cooking times ASAP.
First time making persimmon bread and this recipe is outstanding! Perfectly moist, great flavor with the spices, called for ingredients that all bakers have on hand, and very easy to make. It is one of my new favorites to make! (I just read the last comment that posted since I found this recipe and wanted to add that I did switch my oven to convection for the last 15 min when I tested it and the center was not done, but I thought it my oven which is only a few years old and/or the fact I baked it in a new glass loaf pan – I will use convection next time too and keep an eye on it. I bake banana bread and others all the time and my persimmons were very, very ripe). Thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing this thoughtful response, Brenda. I am glad to hear you love the recipe! There is a difference when using a glass pan – I usually bake mine in a darker non-stick pan (as you can see in the photos). I will add your tip to the recipe notes, plus the note that usually when baking in a glass pan, the temperature should be 25 degrees higher, and will take up to 10 minutes longer. I haven’t tested it with this recipe (yet), but will do so ASAP since it seems like a helpful exercise.
It came out low, which can be ok for many bread recipes, but it started to burn after 45 minutes in the oven! I pulled it out as soon as I smelled it. Yes, I’m sure it was at 350 degrees.
After it cooled thoroughly, I cut a slice for a taste and trimmed off the edges. The flavor was good but it was VERY moist. I bet the center of the loaf will be inedible.
I consider myself a decent home baker, so I want to say the recipe is flawed, but if everyone else enjoyed it, maybe it was me :-/
Hi JuanaMaria… I am so sad and shocked to hear this! Having personally made this loaf dozens of times, plus other folks who have used the recipe from the blog, and friends and family. One thing I can think of is that if the persimmon isn’t ripe enough, then it doesn’t disperse properly in the batter… this would result in a cake that is dry on the outside (causing it to burn) and all the persimmon coming together on the inside (causing it to be raw and inedible). Was the consistency of the persimmons liquidy? Like a completely black banana?
This bread was awesome. I doubled it, used gluten free flour, replaced the sugar with honey, increased the baking soda, placed sliced meyer lemon dipped in honey on top, and it tasted like ginger bread! Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear it, Mairin! I’m glad the substitutions worked out 🙂
Hi, this recipe sounds amazing !!! Could I substitute sugar with honey, butter with EVVO or coconut oil and just egg whites instead of whole eggs ?
Hi Marina… great questions! I have tried the recipe with both olive oil and coconut oil and it works great. Know that the olive oil will yield a slightly different taste.
Although I haven’t tried the recipe yet with the other two substitutions, you will (probably) be OK with the egg substitution (at 2 egg whites per egg in the recipe).
For the honey instead of sugar, I am worried that the bread will not rise sufficiently. You can try adding a bit more baking soda, but at your own risk.
I am so curious to know how it goes… so keep me updated and wishing you luck!
I have used flax seed “eggs” to bake in the past and it has worked out well. Do you think it would work here, taste wise?
I’ve never tried it in this recipe, but in theory it should work. If you try it, please let me know how it goes!
This looks so beautiful!! I love persimmon but never baked with it – was excited to try and came out great!
So happy to hear it, Aline!
Your recipe looks delicious. I always shy away from making fruity breads and this recipe is perfect. Thanks a lot.
I’m so happy to hear it, Sophie!