Persimmon Holiday Pudding

Going through Mother’s recipe stash I found this simple Persimmon Pudding recipe written up by her friend Dorothy Hoffman. These two gals (now gone) knew each other since the 40’s. Dorothy was a good cook and Mother only kept recipes she thought delicious … usually making notes on the recipe card about the outcome. No notes this time but decided it must have been a keeper. Yep!!

Quick word about Persimmon pudding. It’s not a pudding at all just as a figgy pudding isn’t. The texture is of a very moist nutty cake. The prep is quick and the baking is longer than the usual. This gives you time to prepare a hard sauce. Serve this with hard sauce or chantilly cream. I like both (of course). Dorothy’s hard sauce recipe is very quick and tastes heavily of brown sugar. I love the taste but you may wish to try another version of hard sauce here.

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1 Cup flour
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
2 Teaspoons soda
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 Cup sugar
1 Egg
1 Cup persimmon pulp
1/2 Cup milk
2 Tablespoons butter-melted
1 Cup chopped walnuts

Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, salt and sugar in a large bowl..

Beat the egg with a fork and then add it to the pulp along with baking soda, melted butter and milk. I used a mixer for this.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and beat low until just incorporated.

Fold in nuts.

Pour into a 2 quart greased baking dish and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 1/2 hours. My oven is a slow oven and this baked in 1 1/4 hours. Check at a hour to see progression.

Dorothy’s Hard Sauce

1/2 Cup butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1 Cup brown sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla

In a saucepan melt the butter.

Whisk together the sugar and flour and add to the melted butter while whisking the mixture to remove lumps.

Bring to a simmer with bubbling slightly. Allow to cook without stirring for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and add vanilla carefully.

If needed add water to thin the sauce a bit. (I used a little cream.)

Allow the sauce to cool and then pour over the top of the warm pudding.

Serve with chantilly cream, recipe here.