We’ve just taken Amish Friendship Bread to the next level with these Persimmon Spice Amish Friendship Bread cupcakes, frosted with a vanilla ginger buttercream frosting and topped with candied ginger. We got some big time ♥ going on over here.
This recipe almost didn’t happen, because I’m not a persimmon fan. Maybe it’s because I grew up in communities where persimmon trees were everywhere (as in EVERYWHERE), and people were eating them all the time and trying to pass off their extra fruit to their neighbors. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about the persimmon that throws me off. It looks like a tomato but with less promise, so I never gave it much thought, until now.
I adapted the recipe from Stephanie at Girl vs Dough. She has lots of wonderful recipes, but when I saw this one I got all worked up (seriously. It was weird.). At any given time I have a list of at least 15 Amish Friendship Bread recipes I need to work on, but I pushed ALL of them aside so I could figure out how to make this one work. I also drove 20 miles to get the persimmons because my local grocery store didn’t have any left. The irony was not lost on me.
I like incorporating fruit into the batter whenever possible. It adds flavor, moisture and texture to the bread, and in some cases (like this one), I can leave out the dry pudding mix altogether. This does mean you’ll have to spend a little extra time prepping the fruit, namely chopping and de-stemming the persimmons, then pulsing it into a puree before you can fold it in to the batter.
I knew I wanted cupcakes, but since my silicone baking cups tend to run a little small I had just enough batter left over to make a mini loaf.
I frosted the cupcakes with a vanilla-ginger buttercream frosting, then sprinkled on some cinnamon and topped it with a wedge of candied ginger. I dusted the mini loaf with powdered sugar.
We inhaled these cupcakes. My carb-free husband had a slice of the loaf with a cup of coffee. My kids did that thing with your fingers when you press down on every crumb so as not to miss any of it. I would have shared these with my neighbors but they were gone in a day. I’m definitely going to try this one again soon, and I’ll most likely make it into a cake or layer cake. Visit the Conversion Tables page to see how to tweak a recipe if you decide to use different bakeware.
Persimmon Spice Amish Friendship Bread Cupcakes
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F (177° C).
- In a blender or food processor, pulse chopped persimmons until smooth. Measure ¾ cup and save or discard any remaining pulp.
- In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, allspice and cloves.
- In a separate bowl, use a handheld mixer or stand mixer to cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add starter, persimmon pulp and eggs. Beat on medium speed until combined.
- Add dry mixture and combine until fully incorporated.
- Line a cupcake pan with paper or silicone baking cups and fill until ¾ full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Sprinkle frosted cupcakes with cinnamon and top with candied ginger.
- ENJOY!
>> Have you tried this? Share your best pic with us or leave a comment below and let us know how it worked for you!
The recipe does not state the amount of baking soda
I tried this. Even though I used a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and added a 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder like other friendship kitchen breads have, the loaf was flat, about two inches tall, and dense on the bottom. This recipe needs more research. I would consider sticking another cup of flour in it. Probably what I’ll do next time is use the original Amish bread recipe and dump persimmons in it and cut some other liquid a bit, the milk perhaps.
Please….how much baking soda should be used?? It’s in instructions but not listed in ingredients. Help! I really want to try this recipe!
Hi Bessy! You can use ½ teaspoon of baking soda. Thank you for letting us know about that missing ingredient!
Maybe one teaspoon baking soda would be better? Mine didn’t rise at all and texture was more like persimmon pudding than cupcake. Flavor was good, but will probably stick with my other fav AFB recipes.
Thanks for the input, Bessy! We will add this recipe to our list to test out again!
If I want to bake it in a loaf pan instead, what would be the appropriate temperature and duration?
Hi Christina! On the bottom of our Conversion Table page, we have the different bake times depending on what bakeware you’re using: https://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/conversion-tables/
This recipe is delicious. I had to tweak it a little to suit my tastes. I only added a dash of nutmeg and cloves and left our the allspice. I’m not a huge fan of those spices but the dash seemed the perfect amounts. As for the ginger vanilla frosting, OH MY GOODNESS! It is so yummy. I don’t like dried ginger in the little spice jars but I really like fresh ginger and this recipe didn’t disappoint. The combination of the cupcake with the frosting is simply amazing. This is a keeper that you must try.
That sounds delicious, Jennifer! Thanks for the tips!
I don’t see baking soda on the ingredients but in the directions it say to add baking soda… How much baking soda do I add?
Oooh, love that this is a little different! I’d like to make friends (hehe) with these persimmon cupcakes!
Have persimmon pulp in freezer. What qty equals 2 persimmons? Thanks so much!
I’d start with ¾ cup, Lou!
Where do we get the persimmons spice?
All of the spices are available in any grocery store spice area, Genevieve!
YES!!! lol I can’t wait to try them… now to locate some persimmons… lol
Thanks for posting this!
Have fun, Wendy! This is seriously a big-time favorite of ours … enjoy!