Vegan Bunny Elle

A great way to preserve your persimmons so you can enjoy them longer! They’re jammy, sweet, and beautifully shiny and glistening.

Persimmons are one of my absolute favorite fruits but they’re only available for a short season in the fall. Luckily, there are a few ways we can preserve them! The traditional Chinese method is to sun dry them, usually dried whole, and the most beautiful thing about this method is that the persimmons will gain a layer of “frost” during the drying process and it’s even used in Chinese medicine! The downside is that it takes a very long time to fully dry the fruits, usually a few months, and it heavily depends on the weather.

Another method is to freeze them, which is the easiest, and you can keep them for a year or even longer. But recently I had been wondering, can we maybe candy persimmons like how we’d candy whole oranges? So I experimented and turns out they candy amazingly!

Left: Hachiya; right: Fuyu

Before you start, you gotta know the two different types of persimmons – Fuyu and Hachiya. Fuyu persimmon is smaller, shorter, has a squished look, they are sweet and enjoyable even when they’re still firm and crisp; Hachiya persimmon, on the other hand, is much bigger, taller, more elongated and heart-shaped, they are absolutely inedible before they’re fully ripened, they can be extremely extringent and unpleasant, however, if you wait for them to ripen and become very soft to touch, then they’re a honey sweet, syruppy, jammy heavenly treat!

Please note that the candying process does not ripen the fruits, so if you’re using fuyu, feel free to candy them at any firmness you like. And if you want to use hachiya, be sure to let them fully ripen first.

A lovely way to enjoy these candied whole persimmons is to eat them like mango sticky rice, well, persimmon sticky rice. Follow this linked recipe for the sticky rice and coconut sauce methods.

Candied Whole Persimmons

Jammy, sweet, glistening, these candied whole persimmons are literal jewels.

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Ingredients Equipment Method Video

Ingredients

  

• 7-8 persimmons please read through the article for the differences between the two types of persimmons
• 6 cup water
• 6 cup sugar

Equipment

• Air tight jar

Method

 

1. Wash your persimmons really well, then pat dry;
2. In a large pot, add the sugar and water, heat over medium heat until all the sugar is dissolved, bring to a slow and gentle simmer, let the syrup reduce for 30 minutes, uncovered;
3. Transfer the persimmons into the pot, use a lid that’s smaller than your pot to weigh them down so they’re fully submerged in the syrup, keep the heat at the lowest setting, the syrup shouldn’t be bubbling, let the persimmons heat in this very slow and low non-bubbling simmer for 1 hour;
4. Meanwhile, prepare your jar by boiling it for 10 minutes;
5. Once the persimmons are done simmering, transfer the fruits to the jar, and pour all the syrup into the jar, close the lid and seal;
6. Let them cool down to room temperature, then transfer into the fridge, wait at least 24 hours before you dig in;
7. They can keep in the fridge for at least 1-2 weeks, if you keep the jar clean they can last up to 1 month, enjoy!

Video