Spiced Banana & Persimmon Bread with Cranberries

A delicious, moist, sweet, and flavourful bread that's a wonderful alternative to traditional banana or pumpkin bread, this Spiced Banana & Persimmon Bread with Walnuts and Cranberries is great with coffee or as a mid afternoon snack. The fragrant combination of ground nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves adds a Christmasy flavour to this festive loaf, and sprinkled with a little coarse brown sugar before baking in the oven creates a lovely crunchy top without adding any extra sweetness. I added dried cranberries and walnuts, however any dried fruit, nut or even dried coconut would be equally delicious.

Butter and brown sugar blended until smooth in a standing mixer

Flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, walnuts and dried cranberries

All blended together with mashed banana and persimmons

The batter is scooped into a loaf pan and sprinkled with coarse brown sugar and then baked at 350°F for 50-60 minutes

The bread is done with a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

After 10 minutes, the loaf is removed from the pan and allowed to cool on a baking rack

Spiced Banana & Persimmon Bread with Cranberries & Walnuts
Makes 1 loaf

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup white or brown sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries or cherries
1/4 tsp salt
1 ripe banana, mashed
2 ripe Kuku persimmons, peeled with centre removed and puréed
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup turbinado or raw sugar, for garnish


Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar using a standing mixer. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, walnuts, dried cranberries and salt and mix well. In another bowl, combine the mashed bananas, mashed persimmon, milk and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Pour into a greased bread pan and smooth the batter out into an even layer and sprinkle the top with a 1/4 cup turbinado or raw sugar to add crunch. Bake for 50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick or skewer inserted into the middle of the bread comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and continue to cool on wire rack.