Here’s a great way to sneak in a bit of whole grain goodness without anyone ever guessing. This is ooey, gooey, and not too sweet. Walnuts add complexity.

Whole Wheat Persimmon Pudding

Makes one 8-inch pudding.
From the A Hungry Girl blog.

Ingredients

About 1½ pounds Hachiya persimmons (very soft, see note)
1-¼ cups Community Grains Whole Wheat Flour (Hard Red, Hard White, or Pastry Flour)
1/8 tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1-½ cups milk
¼ cup whipping cream
1 Tbsp honey
1 cup walnuts or mixed walnuts and black walnuts
6 Tbsp unsalted butter

Baking Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter and line the bottom of an 8 or 9-inch springform pan. (Alternatively, take a regular 8 or 9-inch cake pan, butter, and line the surfaces with parchment papers. Puddings can go quite high, so you’ll want to have the ribbon of paper that lines the sides rise up at least an inch higher than the rim of the cake pan.) Set aside.
Scrape the pulp off the peel and put through a strainer, or puree in a blender or food processor.
Mix the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Combine the persimmon pulp, sugar, eggs, milk, cream, and honey. Gradually stir the liquid mixture into the flour mixture. It will be thin at first but will thicken quickly. Let the batter stand to thicken.
Toast the nuts for 5 to 6 minutes in a 350 F oven.
While the nuts are toasting, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Allow to cool.
Remove the nuts from the pan and chop roughly.
When the nuts and butter have cooled slightly, add to the batter, and pour the whole into a prepared pan.
Bake in a 350 F oven for 2 to 3 hours with a sheet pan in the rack beneath it to catch any drips, or until the pudding is set. A toothpick will come out done, and the top will be a dark brown. Place on a cake rack to cool for 15 to 30 minutes (30 minutes if using a regular cake pan), before removing it from the pan.
Serve warm in scoops or slices, drizzled with cream.

Note

There are two kinds of persimmons generally seen at the store — flat-bottomed Fuyu persimmons, eaten when quite firm and crisp, and pointy-ended Hachiyas, which soften until they seem to be on the edge of bursting open. If you purchase them while still firm, let them sit on their shoulders on a kitchen counter, until they are soft and jelly-like inside. If any are a little quicker to ripen, you can scoop out the pulp and freeze it until the others are ready; defrost the frozen ones well before you’re ready to start baking.