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    Home » Recipes » Sweet Bread

    Gluten-Free Vegan Persimmon Chai Bread

    Published: Oct 14, 2014 · Modified: Jul 20, 2022 by Audrey · This post may contain affiliate links · 36 Comments

    Jump to Recipe

    Gluten Free Vegan Persimmon Chai Bread {Refined Sugar-Free}

    Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin... PERSIMMONS! Persimmons are one of my favorite fall things to bake with and I can't tell you how excited I was to see these little orange cuties are back in season! And HOLY COW did this gluten-free vegan persimmon chai bread come out DELICIOUS! If you don't fall in love, you're not human ;) . The persimmons in this give this loaf a very moist and delicate texture and flavor and the spices make it a perfect cozy treat for fall {or winter, or summer, or any day... I'd definitely eat this any day... ;) }.

    Gluten Free Vegan Persimmon Chai Bread {Refined Sugar-Free}

    I also used some of my persimmons to make a glaze for this bread -- it was the first time I've tried it and it came out really pretty! Note though that the golden color you see in the glaze will only be there the first day. After refrigerating, it'll darken (but will still be absolutely pretty and delicious). Just mentioning it in case you're counting on the color for presentation. I think the glaze makes this bread a perfect Thanksgiving or Halloween treat, or a great dessert to treat your friends and family with. Enjoy!

    P.S. Ripe or VERY ripe persimmons are an absolute must for this recipe.

    Print

    Gluten-Free Vegan Persimmon Chai Bread

    Gluten Free Vegan Persimmon Chai Bread {Refined Sugar-Free}
    Print Recipe

    ★★★★★

    4.3 from 6 reviews

    Persimmons are one of my favorite fall fruits to bake with, and they give this spiced gluten-free vegan bread loaf a very moist and delicate texture and flavor.

    • Author: Audrey @ Unconventional Baker
    • Prep Time: 10 minutes
    • Cook Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes
    • Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
    • Yield: 1 loaf
    • Category: Bread
    • Method: Baked
    • Cuisine: Dessert

    Ingredients

    Bread Ingredients:

    • 1 ½ cups persimmon puree (blend down roughly 3 small RIPE persimmons)
    • ¼ cup olive oil (or another baking oil)
    • ½ a ripe banana
    • 1 cup maple syrup (or liquid sweetener of your choice)
    • 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
    • 1 tsp cinnamon
    • ½ tsp allspice
    • ⅛ tsp nutmeg
    • ⅛ tsp cloves
    • ¼ tsp ground black pepper (no, I’m not crazy. Just put it in. You’ll see ;) )
    • ⅛ tsp ground ginger (spice, not fresh)
    • ½ cup buckwheat flour
    • ½ cup brown rice flour
    • ⅓ cup potato starch (tapioca or arrowroot starch would work too)
    • 1 tsp guar gum (or xantham gum)
    • 1 tsp GF baking powder
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • ½ cup raisins

    Glaze Ingredients:

    • 1 small very ripe persimmon
    • 3 tbsp maple syrup
    • 3 tbsp coconut oil, liquified
    • 1 tbsp non-dairy milk (optional; lightens the color a bit)
    • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

    Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
    2. Place rough chopped persimmons (or puree if you already blended them down), olive oil, banana, maple syrup, vanilla, and spices into a blender and blend into a smooth and uniform mixture. Transfer into a large mixing bowl.
    3. Add in all remaining bread ingredients, except raisins, and mix until everything is combined and uniform. Fold in the raisins.
    4. Pour into your prepared bread loaf pan and bake for approximately 1 hour and 5 minutes (or until a skewer inserted down the center comes out dry. Remove from oven and cool on a cooking rack.
    5. In the meantime, prepare the glaze by blending all ingredients together in a blender. Once the loaf is cooled, transfer it onto your serving plate and drizzle with the glaze. Note: persimmon tends to gel up very easily once blended, so if you leave your blended glaze to sit in the blender for a bit and it gels up, simply re-blend for a few seconds and it’ll liquify. Enjoy!

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Melissa Sanchez says

      December 08, 2020 at 6:33 pm

      I am baking this now. After reading the comments and noticing how runny the dough seemed for bread I decided to add 1/2 cup more of rice flour. I think the consistency all depends on the moisture of the fruit. Also my bread pan was at my kids house so I used a cake spring pan.
      Just tried it and its amazing!!!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    2. Anne says

      November 29, 2020 at 2:26 am

      I followed the recipe precisely except cut the maple syrup in half. After baking 55 minutes the skewer came out clean, but I still left it in the oven an additional 10 minutes. The edges were dark, but when I sliced into it the inside was VERY wet. Seems like it needs more flour and a couple of eggs (or egg substitutes).

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        December 03, 2020 at 6:10 pm

        Hi Anne, sorry the recipe didn't work out for you. I'm not sure what could have gone amiss without being there. However you're the second person to comment with this problem, and both you and Suzanne (she left a comment before yours) reduced the maple syrup in the recipe quite significantly. I wonder if that has anything to do with the problematic outcome since it's quite a significant change to the recipe?

        Reply
    3. Suzanne says

      December 30, 2019 at 1:55 am

      I don’t know what I did wrong, but the batter rose, then fell. Despite keeping it extra long in the oven, the bread never solidified, remaining runny, except for the edges, which crusted like tough, sticky cookies. I used xanthem gum instead of guar gum, and 3/4 cup of maple syrup instead of 1 cup, and it was very sweet.

      ★

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        December 03, 2020 at 6:03 pm

        Hi Suzanne, sorry it didn't work out for you. I'm not sure what could have gone wrong, not being there with you. Did you substitute anything else? Is your oven temperature steady? If the recipe was followed to a tee, then if I had to guess, I wonder if your persimmons were a lot lager than my own? This is an old recipe and nowadays I always put weights for fruit to avoid this type of issue... If I get a hold of some small persimmons again like I used in this recipe I'll update it with weights (for some reason all the persimmons I'm seeing this year are of a much larger variety so far).

        Reply
    4. Tiffany says

      December 21, 2019 at 6:53 pm

      Thank you for this recipe! It is so good. Came across it looking for something to make with persimmons, never used them and my neighbor gave me some from her tree. Everyone in my house fell in love with it, have made it 3 times since Thanksgiving.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        December 03, 2020 at 5:55 pm

        Hi Tiffany, thank you for the lovely feedback. I'm so glad you enjoyed the this recipe and found something tasty to use those persimmons in :)

        Reply
    5. Caro says

      November 26, 2019 at 1:39 pm

      This turned out great! Thanks for sharing!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        December 10, 2019 at 11:14 am

        Aw, awesome -- so glad you enjoyed it, Caro! Thanks for the feedback.

        Reply
    6. Amy says

      November 19, 2019 at 2:55 am

      Wondering which type of persimmons are used for this recipe? The super soft jelly-like hachiya kind or the more firm fuyu type?

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        November 19, 2019 at 10:49 am

        Hi Amy. The soft jelly-like kind. You can also use the firmer type (non-astringent varieties), but you have to let them get really ripe until they are jelly-like as well.

        Reply
    7. Keren says

      February 10, 2019 at 8:14 am

      Delicious. I made a double batch because I needed to salvage 6 very ripe persimmons and being OK with gluten, used a combo of whole spelt, brown rice and oat bran, which worked beautifully. I reduced sweetener because the persimmons were already very sweet, and it came out perfectly. Thanks.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        February 19, 2019 at 3:17 pm

        Thanks so much for sharing, Karen. Super helpful to hear your substitutiones. I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

        Reply
    8. Joshua says

      January 04, 2018 at 2:36 am

      Can I replace whole wheat pastry flour for buckwheat and rice flour?

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        January 10, 2018 at 5:23 pm

        Hi Joshua, I haven't tried as I'm gluten-intolerant, but I think that should work fine based on feedback on similar cakes from my readers. The only thing is I would then replace all of these ingredients with the regular flour (not just buckwheat and rice), as together they work as a gluten-free flour mix:

        ½ cup buckwheat flour
        ½ cup brown rice flour
        ⅓ cup potato starch (tapioca or arrowroot starch would work too)
        1 tsp guar gum (or xantham gum)

        So then I'd try this recipe with 1 1/3 cup regular flour.

        If you give it a go, I'd love to hear how it works out for you.

        Reply
        • Joshua says

          January 11, 2018 at 12:20 am

          Thanks Audrey! I'll let you know how they turn out. Love your site! Look forward to trying out some other recipes as well :)

          Reply
    9. Yannick Phillips says

      November 14, 2017 at 10:11 am

      I don’t use potato start or those other ‘flour’ ingredients. Can it be make with regular flour too?! And then eggs or no eggs? I saw the almond flour twist but I️ don’t use that either except in pie crusts. Any advice for using flour...thank you!

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        December 03, 2020 at 5:58 pm

        Hi Yannick, I haven't tried, but I don't see why regular flour wouldn't work. If you give it a try, let me know how it turned out for you. I'm not sure what you mean by eggs or no eggs -- there are no eggs in this recipe?

        Reply
    10. sibel says

      October 06, 2017 at 10:44 am

      Made this yesterday but didnt feel the need to add the 1 cup of sweetener. Our persimmons are so ripe and sweet as they are. Didnt have any guar gum or potato starch either but it worked out just fine. Moist and sweet. Thanks for the inspiration!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        October 11, 2017 at 12:36 pm

        Thanks very much for sharing what worked for you, Sibel. Glad you enjoyed it :)

        Reply
    11. Marianne says

      November 24, 2016 at 7:38 pm

      Can you freeze Not Ripe Persimmons?

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        November 24, 2016 at 9:44 pm

        If you freeze them, they'll permanently remain not ripe, so I'd say it's not a good idea. You can ripen them very quickly though by putting them in a paper bag with an apple though.

        Reply
    12. a says

      April 18, 2016 at 5:25 pm

      Love this idea.. You have a great palate! Cannot wait to try some of your recipes.

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        April 19, 2016 at 10:41 am

        Thank you, a! Enjoy them :)

        Reply
    13. Laura says

      December 14, 2015 at 2:56 pm

      Could I substitute white rice flour for the brown?

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        December 14, 2015 at 7:24 pm

        Hi Laura,

        Absolutely!

        Enjoy it :)

        Reply
    14. keka says

      July 10, 2015 at 6:37 pm

      Hi Audrey
      I just find your blog because was looking for a helthy recipe with persimmons
      I,m from Chile and here we dont have a lot of the ingredients in your recipe
      but trying to do something similar I substituded the sumatory of all of the flours for almond meal, and the xumtum gum for 2 eggs, and it was really divine!!
      But I have a question
      The brown color comes from some of those ingredients?
      Mine came out more caramel color, not chocolate color as your picture
      Thanks again for you site,your recipes and your beautifull pictures :)

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        July 13, 2015 at 8:41 pm

        Hi keka, thanks so much for your comment -- so glad you liked the recipe! And yes, I think substituting eggs and almond flour would definitely have an impact on the color -- the white of the eggs tends to lighten recipes up, the yolk adds a yellow hue, and almond flour is not as absorbent as a grain-based flour, so it would remain a little lighter. But a delicious caramel colored bread sounds good to me too :)

        Reply
    15. swathi says

      January 26, 2015 at 1:40 pm

      Looks delicious and perfect for tea, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop, pinning.

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        January 26, 2015 at 3:05 pm

        Thanks Swathi! This cake really does go well with a good cup of tea :)

        Reply
    16. Marianne Fulton says

      December 12, 2014 at 7:39 pm

      I made this last night and it was relish!! I only had less then 2 TBS of arrowroot and the bread came out great. I wanted to know if you have ever made a large batch of this recipe? I am planning on making this for gifts.

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        December 12, 2014 at 7:52 pm

        Hi Marianne. Thanks so much! So happy to hear it turned out great for you. I haven't made this particular loaf in a larger batch, but I have made something very similar to this in a larger batch and it worked well, so I am positive this will be fine too when multiplied. I think it would make wonderful gifts :)

        Reply
    17. Tonia Brow says

      December 10, 2014 at 12:40 am

      The bread is absolutely delicious. Thanks for the recipe!

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        December 10, 2014 at 12:55 am

        Thanks so much, Tonia! :-) So glad to hear you liked it!

        Reply
    18. Recipes Gawker says

      October 24, 2014 at 3:23 am

      Hi there,

      We have launched a new website http://www.recipesgawker.com/, a community for food bloggers and food lovers. This website is based on Pinterest concept but specific to food. You can pin, organize and share your wonderful recipes here. Appreciate if you can join our community and start pinning recipes.

      Happy pinning!

      Regards
      Recipes Gawker team

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        October 24, 2014 at 11:11 am

        Thanks - I'll be sure to check it out!

        Reply

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