Persimmon Pudding is a holiday favorite here in the Midwest.  Years ago, it was difficult to find persimmon pulp, unless you were lucky enough to know someone with a persimmon tree.  And squeezing the persimmons to separate the skins and seeds from the fruit, then pushing all of  it a through a sieve, was a chore.  What a culinary triumph to serve rich, spicy  persimmon pudding on Thanksgiving Day!

We used to buy persimmon pulp at a little country store where they kept it in a freezer, and sold out almost the day it came in.  The first time I bought the pulp, I asked the owner,  an old man in bib overalls, if he had a favorite recipe. He looked at me for a moment and said, “just wait here a minute.”  Whereupon he ambled to his house next door, and came back with a xerox copy of this recipe. It’s similar to what they served at the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival for years until the ladies who  made it “retired.”

Persimmon pulp is now available in most upscale grocery stores.  You can even order it over the internet.  It’s a bit pricey compared to the good old days, but it sure beats looking for a persimmon tree and spending all day making pulp.

Not everyone likes persimmon pudding, but for those that do, it’s a rare treat, especially when served with whipped cream.  There are other persimmon recipes that give you a dessert with  the texture of a brownie or cake, so you might look those up on the internet if you think you would like that better.

PERSIMMON PUDDING

2 cups persimmon pulp

½  cup melted butter

1 cup milk

1 cup half and half (it’s okay to use milk)

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp nutmeg

1  1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp  allspice

Mix pulp, eggs.  sugar, melted butter and milk.  Mix dry ingredients separately.  Then combine both mixtures. Stir well. Pour into greased 9 X 13 inch pan and bake for one hour at 325 degrees.  Stir several times while pudding is baking so that it won’t harden at edges of pan.