Persimmon Cream Pie
Submitted by tatt_59
Persimmon cream pie with a custard of egg yolks, cream, and ripe persimmon pulp, crowned with a sticky pecan praline crumble. The fruit must be jelly-soft for the right honeyed flavor.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
20 minREADY
40 minThis is a pie that lives or dies by patience. Hachiya persimmons need to be wildly, almost worryingly ripe before they enter this filling. Firm fruit is mouth-puckeringly astringent. The pulp should feel like jelly under the skin and the fruit should look half-collapsed before you even think about scooping.
Once you have proper pulp, the filling is a straightforward custard. Cream, sugar, flour, melted butter, then four egg yolks plus a whole egg whisked in for richness and structure. The persimmon pulp gets folded in last so the bright, honeyed flavor doesn’t get muscled out by aggressive whisking.
The topping is what pushes this past a standard fruit custard. A homemade pecan praline crumble, made by caramelizing sugar to a light hay color and stirring in toasted pecans, shatters into chewy-crunchy shards over the top.
The two-stage bake at 450°F (230°C) then 350°F (175°C) sets the edges fast and the center slow, so you get clean slices instead of a runny middle.
Pro Tips
- Ripen persimmons stem-end up at room temperature, no paper bags. They need weeks, not days.
- Pull the caramel off the heat at light hay color. Any darker and the praline snaps instead of crumbling.
- Chop the cooled praline with a knife, never a food processor. The caramel gums up the blade.
- Cover the crust rim with foil if it browns ahead of the filling.
- The filling is done when it just barely simmers around the edge.
Variations
- Swap pecans for toasted hazelnuts or walnuts in the praline.
- Add ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon and a pinch of cardamom to the custard for warm spice.
- Use Fuyu persimmons (the squat, tomato-shaped kind) only if fully soft. They give a milder, less honeyed flavor.
Ingredients
Directions
For best results, persimmons must be riper than you think they are.
They ripen best at room temperature, points up -- no bags, no ripening bowls.
When they look rotten, shriveled, and feel like there’s jelly under their skins, they’re ready.
This can take weeks.
PERSIMMON FILLING: Set oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 450’F.
Scoop persimmon pulp out of skins, discarding seeds and leaves.
Purée pulp in a food processor or blender.
Whisk together cream, flour, sugar, and melted butter.
Beat together the yolks, the whole egg, and the vanilla and whisk into cream mixture.
Fold in persimmon pulp. Pour filling into pie shell. Top with a handful (about ½ cup) of praline crumble.
Bake 10 minutes at 450’F.
Reduce heat to 350’F and bake 50 minutes to 1 hour more.
Rotate pie if crust begins to overbrown, or cover rim with a foil strip.
Filling will nearly boil when done.
FOR STICKY PECAN PRALINE CRUMBLE: Toast pecans on a cookie sheet at 350’F about 10 to 15 minutes, tossing them a few times.
(Nuts will start to smell toasted when they need to come out of the oven.) Butter another cookie sheet and set aside.
In a heavy saucepan, bring sugar, water, and cream of tartar to a boil over medium-high heat.
(If crystals form on the sides of the pan, cover the pan for 30 seconds or as long as 5 minutes so steam rinses off the sides.) When the sugar darkens, you may swirl the pan to even the color.
As caramel turns the color of light hay, remove from heat.
Don’t let the caramel get too dark, or the sugar will be too brittle to crumble, and it will snap instead.
Using a wooden spoon, stir in toasted nuts, mixing to coat them very well.
Spread caramel-coated nuts out on the buttered cookie sheet, cool 1 hour, then chop coarsely with a knife (a food processor causes the caramel to stick and clump).
You can store the surplus in a tightly covered jar at room temperature for three months.
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