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... ;) }.
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.
PrintGluten-Free Vegan Persimmon Chai Bread
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.
- 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
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- 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.
- Add in all remaining bread ingredients, except raisins, and mix until everything is combined and uniform. Fold in the raisins.
- 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.
- 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!
Melissa Sanchez says
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!!!
★★★★★
Anne says
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).
Audrey says
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?
Suzanne says
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.
★
Audrey says
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).
Tiffany says
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.
★★★★★
Audrey says
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 :)
Caro says
This turned out great! Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Audrey says
Aw, awesome -- so glad you enjoyed it, Caro! Thanks for the feedback.
Amy says
Wondering which type of persimmons are used for this recipe? The super soft jelly-like hachiya kind or the more firm fuyu type?
Audrey says
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.
Keren says
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.
★★★★★
Audrey says
Thanks so much for sharing, Karen. Super helpful to hear your substitutiones. I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)
Joshua says
Can I replace whole wheat pastry flour for buckwheat and rice flour?
Audrey says
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.
Joshua says
Thanks Audrey! I'll let you know how they turn out. Love your site! Look forward to trying out some other recipes as well :)
Yannick Phillips says
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!
Audrey says
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?
sibel says
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!
★★★★★
Audrey says
Thanks very much for sharing what worked for you, Sibel. Glad you enjoyed it :)
Marianne says
Can you freeze Not Ripe Persimmons?
Audrey says
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.
a says
Love this idea.. You have a great palate! Cannot wait to try some of your recipes.
Audrey says
Thank you, a! Enjoy them :)
Laura says
Could I substitute white rice flour for the brown?
Audrey says
Hi Laura,
Absolutely!
Enjoy it :)
keka says
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 :)
Audrey says
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 :)
swathi says
Looks delicious and perfect for tea, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop, pinning.
Audrey says
Thanks Swathi! This cake really does go well with a good cup of tea :)
Marianne Fulton says
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.
Audrey says
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 :)
Tonia Brow says
The bread is absolutely delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Audrey says
Thanks so much, Tonia! :-) So glad to hear you liked it!
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Audrey says
Thanks - I'll be sure to check it out!