If you’ve never had a persimmon you’ve been missing out. Their flavor is often described as a cross between a guava, an apricot and an avocado. Southeastern Indiana has an abundance of wild
persimmon trees and if you are lucky enough to live nearby, the delicate fruit will be showing up in farmers markets and farm stands in the next few weeks. Nutritionally, persimmons are a great source of dietary fiber, as well as vitamin A and vitamin C. We did a little experimenting and used our family zucchini bread recipe but replaced the zucck with persimmons. It worked beautifully and the pecan topping lends a bit of crunchy sweetness.
Mitchell, Indiana, hosts a Persimmon Festival each year with arts and crafts, a persimmon pudding contest, entertainment and the crowning of Persimmon Festival Queen.
Ingredients For Topping: For Muffins: Instructions To make topping, in a small mixing bowl combine melted butter, flour, sugar, pecans and cinnamon. Set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and ground ginger). Whisk a bit until fully mixed. Set aside. Remove stems from the persimmons then slice into eighths. Remove any seeds. Working in 2 batches, place persimmon sections in the bowl of a Foley food mill. Process until 1 cup of pulp is extracted and only the skin remains. To the pulp add sugar, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla. Stir until fully incorporated. Add dry ingredients and stir just until batter is mixed, being careful not to overmix. Add batter into lined muffin tins, filling about three quarters full. Distribute pecan topping equally over all muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or a toothpick inserted comes out clean.Persimmon Muffins with Sugared Pecan Topping
Good to know! We moved to Indiana last year, so maybe we can make it down to the festival some time. Persimmon muffins sound fantastic!
I hope you do! Drop me a line if you make it down there – Kat
Persimmons are amazing! They have a pretty short season where I live in Australia, but I freeze the ripe pulp to use throughout the year. Really like the sound of these muffins.
Hi Chez – yes, a short season here too, only about a month. Freezing the pulp is a terrific idea – Kat
I have never had a persimmon muffin. These look so delicious. Thanks for making me drool…great week ahead!
Hi Liz – glad to see you are back in the blogosphere. Thanks for the kind words – Kat
Smart Kat– swapping out the zucchini for the persimmons. Was th consistency the same?? We have a friend with a persimmon tree– have to see if he offers us some fresh persimmons to bake with! — and who wouldn’t love a muffin with pecan topping? Fun recipe Kat!
Hi Rhonda – yes, these were nice and moist just like zucchini muffins. Oh I hope you are gifted with some persimmons. Just go over and stare longingly at his tree and maybe he will get the hint. 😉 -Kat
Ha ha ha!! I’ll try that Kat! thanks for the constant flow of interesting recipes! xox
These persimmon muffins would be such an amazing breakfast idea! The combination of flavours is fantastic, Rhonda!