Persimmon jam

I find that persimmons is one of those fruits that people either love or hate. My mum and I both love it to bits and same with Julie, my brother’s girlfriend, but my pattisiere friend Rach wouldn’t touch it. Julie’s parents buy boxes of persimmons every few weeks and goes through them like I would chocolate! Last time they went shopping, they gave me quite a few persimmons and although I love them, I didn’t know if I could eat so many in one go. By the time I realised, they had gone soft.

Like a lot of people (apart from my mother who loves it soft and gooey) I like to eat persimmons hard and crunchy. They’re just so much more refreshing and delicious this way. When they’re soft and mushy, it tastes overly sweet and gluggy. What could I do with these soft persimmons? I made them into persimmon jam of course!

In fact, soft and gooey persimmons make the best jam as they are already in that jammy consistency that I hardly needed to cook it down. Although, you wouldn’t be able to imagine what my hands were like after I was done squeezing the pulp out. It was a lot of fun!

As the persimmons were already SO sweet, I didn’t add as much sugar as I was meant to. Depending on how sweet you think your persimmons are, you will need to adjust the amount of sugar, just taste it as you go.

I would recommend just buying soft ones (grocery stores sometimes have them sitting around for a lot cheaper) than buying hard ones and waiting for them to go soft.

Persimmon Jam
Makes 3-4 jars of jam

Ingredients

• 8 very ripe persimmons or roughly 1.2kg persimmon pulp
• 900g sugar
• 30g packet pectin (available from supermarkets)
• 20ml lemon juice

Instructions

1. Make persimmon pulp with the persimmons, discard peel and remove seeds.
2. Add in pectin, stir well.
3. Put pulp in a large and deep non-corrosive pot along with the sugar, make sure it’s only about 1/3 full because it might boil over if it’s too shallow.
4. Put pot on low to medium-low heat (do not boil) and cook the pulp mixture until pale (roughly 15-20 minutes), stirring constantly. Strain the scum on the top so that the jam will be clearer.
5. Add in lemon juice, stir through and pour pulp into sterilised jars (boiling jars and lids in hot water for a few minutes), this keeps the jam from going bad as fast.
6. Serve with freshly made scones or good piece of toast and whipped cream.

Question time: Do you like eating persimmons? Do you prefer crunchy or soft?

When I was taking photos of the jam, I accidentally left my scones in the oven for too long and they overcooked! I was so sad. I didn’t have time to make another batch so I just had to make do. 😛 Hope no one noticed. Ahem.