by Michael Brockley
- Mix the persimmon pulp, sugar, milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.
- The catsup-crusted meat loaf from your mother’s recipe became your sullen comfort after the cancer claimed her, and the fringes of her persimmon pudding promised a crisp, delicious flavor at the end of a silent Thanksgiving.
- Sift the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, flour, nutmeg, and salt into the mix.
- She only baked during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, making gifts for Dr. Lockhart and Herr Meissner, the piano instructor. And for your fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Frank, who overlooked your indifferent knowledge of the times tables. Your superstitious aversion to the Periodic Elements. The woman who chaperoned in the passenger seat while your father drove his Dodge to Cincinnati for your yearly seizure EEG. Trips during which neither you nor your father ever spoke.
- Stir well to combine.
- Among the sugar cookies and rum balls, you favored your mother’s Mexican wedding cakes and persimmon pudding the most. The latter with or without Reddi-wip. Vanilla ice cream being an extravagance.
- Pour the batter into a greased 13-by-9-inch baking pan.
- Following your mother’s death, one of your sisters continued to bake the dessert with the fruit your favorite Poet Laureate despises for its burnt and guilty texture.
- For one hour, bake at 325 degrees.
- After your father remarried, your stepmother crafted petite persimmon puddings for you to take home in a mini loaf pan after the holidays had passed.
- Cool and cut into squares, otherwise scoop out of the pan.
- You shared a brownie-sized bar with the manager of the Strand Records Store and the cashier at the Book Shoppe. Theresa and Vicki. Both of them visited you in the hospital while you recovered from being hit by a black-out drunk on your ten-speed Pegasus one payday afternoon.
- Serve warm or cold, with a splash of half and half. If desired, use whipped cream.
- No one ever asked for a second serving. You never encouraged anyone to help themselves to the last bite.
Addendum: Old-Fashioned Persimmon Pudding Recipe by Jan Mallett
Ingredients
- 2 cups persimmon pulp (fresh or thawed from frozen)
- 1½ cups sugar
- 3 cups milk
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 heaping tsp. baking powder
- 1 level tsp. baking soda
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
- Pinch of ground cloves
- Pinch of salt
- Grated nutmeg
From “The Lasting Legacy of Old-Fashioned Persimmon Pudding,” by Amy Lynch, Garden and Gun.
© 2025 Michael Brockley All rights reserved.
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