If a persimmon cookie and a piece of taffy had a love child, you’d get something close to persimmon candy. It’s a chewy, sweet, rich caramel. It’s a delicious gluten free treat and like nothing else you’ve had before!
This recipe works best with wild persimmons found in the Midwest. If you’re lucky enough to have a persimmon tree or know someone who does, pick the fruit after the first frost.
They’re best after they’ve just fallen off the tree (before the raccoons find them!) or just barely hanging on to their branch.
The fruits are small, squishy, and have large seeds. I’m not going to lie: extracting the pulp is a pain in the butt.
I’ve tried several methods. All (except one) have left me cursing up a blue storm. I’ve tried:
boiling them
pressing them through a colander
microwaving them (don’t do this, they explode)
mashing them through a fine sieve
putting them through a food mill
This past fall I finally decided to take a simple straight forward approach and it worked beautifully.
How to get the most pulp from your persimmons
I’m rolling my eyes at myself as I’m writing this, because I can’t believe I didn’t do this the first time. However, I was under the assumption that heat and pressure would be a far superior way to go. I was wrong. Try this with your next batch of persimmons:
Gently wash the fruit and remove the top leaves and stem.
Pry fruit open with your fingers and remove seeds.
Use remaining pulp and skin.
This only works with overly ripe super soft wild American persimmons, not the Japanese varieties found in the grocery store. That’s a bummer, but it’s also why persimmon candy and cookies are such a treat!
How to make persimmon candy
This recipe makes one 1 1/2 pound log of persimmon candy.
Put 2 cups sugar, 1 cup milk, and 1 tablespoon unsalted butter into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Cook syrup until it reaches the soft ball stage* (240F). If you want a harder candy bring the temperature up to the hard ball stage 250-265F.
Add persimmon pulp (1/2 cup) and cook until temperature reaches 240F again.
Turn off heat and add vanilla (2 teaspoons), 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Beat until mixture is slightly warm.
Spoon caramel into small silicone candy molds and refrigerate or freeze for 1/2 an hour.
How do I know my candy has reached the soft ball stage if I don’t have a thermometer?
Another way to know if your candy has reached 236F if you don’t have a thermometer, is to carefully take a piece of it and drop it into cold water. If it forms a soft ball when touched, you’re there!
Persimmon Candy Variations
Stir in a cup of chopped toasted pecans or walnuts at the very end before putting into candy molds.
Persimmon Cookie Recipe
Here’s my favorite persimmon cookie recipe I got from my friend, Deb H. who got it from her fiancé. It might be his mother’s or grandmother’s recipe. Either way, it’s pure persimmon bliss!
A special thank you to my friend, Amanda, for letting me raid her trees this year.
Amanda, her daughter Leah, and I climbed her golf cart and picked the last remaining persimmons on her trees. In return, I promised them a batch of persimmon candy and a batch of cookies.
4.5 from 4 votes
Print
Persimmon Candy
Rich, tangy, sweet with deep notes of cinnamon – this chewy candy is a treat made with wild persimmons found in the Midwest.
The seeds and stem can be removed and the pulp strained through a strainer, pushing the pulp through with a rubber spatula. A food mill will make faster work of this if you have a large persimmon harvest. Or you can put the fruit with the peel in a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
The persimmon fruit, which usually ripens in fall, is often used in jams and baked goods. The fruit pulp can be turned into molasses, and the seeds can be turned into a peanut-like oil or roasted and used as a coffee substitute. Dried leaves make a great tea high in vitamin C.
The most common method of preserving astringent and non-astringent persimmons is to dry them. Dehydrating astringent persimmons also removes the astringency. To dry persimmons in an electric food dehydrator, select firm persimmons and wash them under running water, patting them dry with a paper towel.
When persimmons are beaten to a pulp, tannins form complexes with carbohydrates, causing the pulp to stiffen to a gel-like consistency. When baking soda is added, a reaction with the moist and slightly acidic persimmon creates carbon dioxide (CO2), which also plays a role in encouraging the pulp to thicken.
American persimmons are only edible when they look like they're about to go rotten: the skin will be very wrinkled, and the fruit itself will appear quite mushy. Furthermore, the color will be a bright orangey-pink. If you try to eat the fruit before it's ripe, you'll have a quite memorable experience.
Depending on the persimmon variety, flowers can take up to five years to emerge. It takes even longer for trees to bear fruit, often up to 10 years for American Persimmon trees.
American persimmons are not usually self-pollinating, but some named varieties are. If you choose a native seedling however, you will need a second tree to get a good harvest. Also, Japanese and American persimmons will not cross pollinate.
Trim the leaves off the top of the fruit, remove the stem, and slice the persimmon in half. Continue slicing the fruit into wedges, removing the black seeds from the center. Eat the fruit slices raw (like an apple), add them to a salad or cheese plate, or use them in baked desserts.
Persimmons are a good source of vitamins A and C as well as manganese, which helps the blood to clot. They also have other antioxidants, which help reduce the risk of many serious health conditions including cancer and stroke. One serving of persimmons contains approximately: Calories: 118.
Common persimmon is found from southern Connecticut and Long Island to southern Florida; westward through central Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, and central Illinois to southeast Iowa; and south through eastern Kansas and Oklahoma to the Valley of the Colorado River in Texas.
Like Hachiya persimmons, American persimmons need to be very soft before you can eat them. However, they will not ripen off of the tree. You must wait until they are soft to harvest them. Sometimes they fall from the tree on their own accord and you can gather them from the ground.
A ripe persimmon will have a deep orange or reddish color, depending on the variety. It should also feel soft, but not mushy when gently pressed. The texture should be akin to a ripe tomato. The ultimate test, however, is its taste: a ripe persimmon will be sweet and free from any astringency.
When Are American Persimmons Ripe? American persimmons ripen in early fall, between September and October in most parts of the country. The fruit takes on a deep orange-yellow hue and the skin becomes almost translucent when fully ripe.
Many recipe books suggest making a persimmon bread similar to a banana bread, or a cooked persimmon pudding. You can try these if you like, but we encourage you to experiment first with raw preparations that showcase the lovely uniqueness of these autumn treasures.
Your dehydrator booklet will tell you the ideal temperature for the specific thing that you are dehydrating. For persimmons, I put them on 135 degrees and they will dry for 7-11 hours. I know that seems like a long time, but just think of it like it's a slow cooker. When you get back from school or work, it's done!
American persimmons are usually processed and sold as frozen pulp, or as baked goods. I do enjoy eating them fresh, when I can get them. This year, I decided to dry some of the persimmons I gathered so that I can enjoy them all winter.
Address: 5789 Michel Vista, West Domenic, OR 80464-9452
Phone: +97313824072371
Job: Education Orchestrator
Hobby: Lockpicking, Crocheting, Baton twirling, Video gaming, Jogging, Whittling, Model building
Introduction: My name is Rob Wisoky, I am a smiling, helpful, encouraging, zealous, energetic, faithful, fantastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
