persimmon bread with cranberries

this recipe came up just in time for one of the best persimmon crops we've ever had.  last year was such a disappointment because there just wasn't any fruit on our tree or any of the other trees nearby.  when we started finding the ripe fruits on the ground last week, we were surprised; our first frost is still several weeks away.  we can only assume that the early spring and the month long drought had something to do with them ripening so early.

lucky for me, this weeks baking challenge for tuesdays with dorie/baking with julia is a loaf of bread that calls for pumpkin puree.  with all of these persimmons just begging to be run through the food mill, i couldn't help but substitute the persimmon pulp for the pumpkin puree called for in the recipe!

native persimmons are small, about the size of a walnut in its shell or smaller.  they are also full of large seeds.  they can only be eaten if they are dark orange and squishy soft otherwise, they are so astringent you will literally feel the insides of your cheeks seal onto the surface of your teeth.  the best thing to do with them is to wash the fruit you find on the ground under the tree-those will be so ripe that they have fallen from the branches.  drain the fruit and run it through a food mill, it will take a lot to get any kind of volume.  i collect them through the season, puree the fruit and store it in sandwich bags in the freezer.  then i can take it out and thaw it as i need to.

as with any heavy, sweet dough, this one took a long time-easily double the time called for in the directions.  it took at least 8 hours to come to 64 degrees and about 3 hours for the loaves to rise in the pans.  honestly, they didn't do much in the oven.  it seems to me that there is just too much in there to make it light and rise quickly.

 i didn't have any small pans so i used two 8x5x3 loaves.  they baked up in about 45-50 minutes, i used a thermometer and waited until the internal temp came up to 200 degrees.

this cheery loaf of bread brightened up a dark and dreary, rainy monday.  it was so dark that i couldn't get a nice color balance in the photo, my bread isn't nearly that orange!

special thanks to our hostess with the mostess, rebecca of this bountiful backyard!  bake on, may the force be with you...