Mimi's Persimmon Pudding

Mimi was what my brother and I called my Mom's mom, LaVerne. She was a wonderful lady in so many ways and I have great kitchen memories of her and her cooking. One of my all time favorite kitchen memories is of her Persimmon Pudding, a pudding/brownie like concoction that she would make every fall. When I was little, I was so in love with this dish that I would sneak into her fridge where she kept the 9x13 pan to gobble up servings of it when she wasn't looking. I even remembering using the food mill to process the sticky, weird fruit into a pulp. Persimmons, for those of you who don't know, is an edible fruit (actually a berry) from a species of tree in the ebony wood family. Traditionally found in the far east, the American Persimmon is native to the eastern United States. The flesh is mushy and the texture is unique. See this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persimmon

I still have an obsession with persimmon pudding and make it every fall in honor of my Mimi. While I can eat it cold, I find that it is best served warm with a bit of Cool Whip or vanilla ice cream on top. There are lots of Persimmon pudding recipes running around Indiana, but to me, this is the best!

Ingredients:

• 2 C persimmon pulp
• 1 C milk
• 1/2 C melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 C flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 C sugar
  
• Dash Cinnamon
• Dash Nutmeg
• Dash Allspice
  

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350
  
• Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl
• Mix wet ingredients together in another bowl
• Add wet ingredients to the dry, and stir until just combined
• Pour into an ungreased 9x 13 pan
• Bake at 325 for 30-40 minutes, until set in the middle