I have a crush on persimmons.
You can see here, here and here.

I never quite knew what to do with them when I was first introduced to them. Recently, I have been seeing more and more recipes where this delicious, beloved fruit is incorporated. Just the other day my hubby sent me this New York Times article on Thanksgiving dishes around the country. And voilà another persimmon dish! Indiana is my hubby's American hometown (actual hometown is in India) and it just happens so that Indiana's Thanksgiving dish is Persimmon Pudding!! Of course my hubby couldn't stop talking about it. And in his adorable ways he kept hinting me to make this pudding. Of course, I had to make his hometown's Thanksgiving dish for him. He is a cutie and I love making food that makes him happy.

Apparently Indiana has a Persimmon Festival and a Persimmon Pudding contest. This recipe is adapted from the Persimmon Pudding recipe featured on NYT's article that won this year's contest. The persimmon flavor wasn't very strong but the pudding was delicious nonetheless. It has this toffee like flavor and tastes scrumptious with fresh slices of persimmons.

I made my version with some small tweaks to fit our taste but feel free to stick to the original recipe if you'd like. ~ I love eating eggs but I dislike eggy puddings. Hence, I subbed egg with cornstarch and water mixture. ~ I also made my own buttermilk, which is pretty much a little over 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice and 1 cup 2% milk. ~ Instead of cinnamon, I added nutmeg. ~ And the biggest difference was that I used Hachiya persimmons, which are the longer kind. They're incredibly juicy and wonderful to bake with.

Needless to say, I am gonna book my flight ASAP to visit my hubby's hometown for the Persimmon Festival next year! I can picture myself frolicking around the fields of persimmon trees and eating persimmon pudding all day long.

Persimmon Pudding

Ingredients

4  tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the baking dish
4-5  Hachiya persimmons, stemmed, peeled and chopped
corn starch mixture (4 tbsp corn starch + 4 tbsp cold water, mix well) or use 2 eggs, beaten
2 cups
1  teaspoon baking soda
1  cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1  cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tsp of nutmeg

Steps

Heat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Butter a 2-quart baking dish.
Purée persimmons in a blender with a splash of water. In a fine mesh strainer, pass the pureed persimmons into a bowl, using the back of a spoon or a spatula push purée through to get the most out of the persimmon pulp. Measure out about 3 cups of pulp for the batter.
Mix the corn starch+water mixture (or eggs) with sugar and persimmon pulp in a bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed.
Add the baking soda into buttermilk, then add to persimmon mixture and beat until mixed well.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour and baking powder together. Slowly add half the flour mixture into persimmon mixture (in the electric mixer bowl) then add the cream, and finish with the remaining flour mixture.
Melt butter, then add salt, vanilla, nutmeg and mix well. Add this butter mixture to the flour and persimmon mixture and mix well.
Transfer batter to the buttered baking dish and bake for 1 hr to 1 hr 15 minutes. Let the pudding cool for about an hour or so after baking. My pudding felt a bit too jiggly at first and I was afraid I'd be serving a big persimmon mush. Once I let it sit for about an hour, it set really well and I was able to cut slices.

Total time 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours | Serves a small crowd