Hi sweet cats! How are you? It’s been a full week and I’ve been feeling a bit low, but had a lovely day yesterday: I’ve done my Taekwondo grading and now I am a red belt, black tag, so it’s quite exciting! And then went with my boyfriend at his mum’s Secret Santa party: it was so relaxed and such good fun, with also a quiz (this would be a great idea to do with my family too!). Obviously, today I was done, but it was nevertheless a brilliant Saturday!

As you know, I like to have something sweet and I had some persimmons that were ripening quite quickly so I made this Gluten-Free Vegan Persimmon Chai Bread by TheUnconventionalBaker: while I am not too keen on persimmons as a fruit due to their consistency, I find they are perfect for a cake!

Ingredients

Bread Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups persimmon puree (blend down roughly 3 small RIPE persimmons)
• ¼ cup olive oil (or another baking oil)
• ½ a ripe banana
• 1 cup maple syrup (or liquid sweetener of your choice)
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp allspice
• ⅛ tsp nutmeg
• ⅛ tsp cloves
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper (no, I’m not crazy. Just put it in. You’ll see 😉 )
• ⅛ tsp ground ginger (spice, not fresh)
• ½ cup buckwheat flour
• ½ cup brown rice flour
• ⅓ cup potato starch (tapioca or arrowroot starch would work too)
• 1 tsp guar gum (or xantham gum)
• 1 tsp GF baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ cup raisins

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 small very ripe persimmon
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, liquified
• 1 tbsp non-dairy milk (optional; lightens the colour a bit)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Place roughly chopped persimmons (or puree if you already blended them down), olive oil, banana, maple syrup, vanilla, and spices into a blender and blend into a smooth and uniform mixture. Transfer into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add in all remaining bread ingredients, except raisins, and mix until everything is combined and uniform. Fold in the raisins.
4. Pour into your prepared bread loaf pan and bake for approximately 1 hour and 5 minutes (or until a skewer inserted down the centre comes out dry. Remove from oven and cool on a cooking rack.
5. In the meantime, prepare the glaze by blending all ingredients together in a blender. Once the loaf is cooled, transfer it onto your serving plate and drizzle with the glaze. Note: persimmon tends to gel up very easily once blended, so if you leave your blended glaze to sit in the blender for a bit and it gels up, simply re-blend for a few seconds and it’ll liquefy.

Enjoy!

Love,

TVCL xx