I have to confess that until a few weeks ago I’d never even heard of a persimmon fruit, let alone eaten one or cooked with it! I do like a challenge though and these little fruits are very popular at this time of year in the States so I thought I’d experiment.

The fruit itself is like a cross between and apple and a pear, and it’s lovely eaten on it’s own, or chopped and served in a salad. It’s also lovely to cook with. This recipe is for some yummy, healthy muffins which would make a perfect afternoon snack or even something you could grab for a brekkie on the go!

Before you start the first thing you need to do is make some oat flour. Simply take 4 cups of porridge oats (make sure they are gluten-free oats), pop them in a processor or blender and process until they form a flour. You will need 2 cups of actual flour for the recipe so you will have some extra to use later 🙂

You will need:

2 cups Oat flour

1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1 cup Persimmon flesh

3 tbsp Apple puree (recipe here)

1/2 cup Coconut oil (melted)

1 cup Coconut sugar

1 tbsp Chia seeds

1 cup of Raisins

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground Cloves

1/2 tsp ground Nutmeg

1/2 tsp sea salt

Makes approx 12 – 14 muffins

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a muffin tray with paper liners (or just grease the tray).

Put the oat flour in to a mixing bowl, add the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and mix well and leave to one side.

Put all the other ingredients apart from the raisins in to a food processor and blend for a few minutes until well combined.

Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir gently. Finally fold in the raisins.

Take approximately 2 tbsps of mixture and add to each cake liner. Sprinkle with coconut sugar and pop in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes or until the tops have browned and a skewer comes out clean. These are very moist muffins so they will seem quite loose.

These are divine whilst still warm from the oven! or allow to cool and enjoy later 🙂