Persimmon Pudding Bread

Or, persimmon bread without the baking soda. A while back, after making our persimmon pie, Jackie gave me a whole bagfull of persimmon goo. It lived in my freezer for a while, until I had time to think about what to do with it. A quick search of the internets brought me to James Beard's persimmon bread, on David Lebovitz's site, and it looked and sounded good. So I figured I'd make it. His bread looks delicious. Mine looked like this:


Thats right, somebody didn't add baking soda. I tried a piece, and despite the two sticks of butter and copious quantities of alcohol and sugar, I didn't like it. Too much like fruit cake. Or a brick. Since my colleagues seem to be immune to the bad baked goods I sometimes bring in (I rarely bring in the good stuff, I eat that), I brought in one of the two loaves. It was pretty much devoured, and people claimed to like it. Weird. So, if you like a pudding-ish, dense, moist, brick-like bread, omit the baking soda from this recipe. If you'd rather have a lighter bread, keep the baking soda. Or just turn the goop into a smoothie or something. I'm not making this one again...