Spiced Gift: Persimmon Chocolate Bread

Before I went off to college, I commandeered my mom's recipe box. One of the treasures I found in there, was a fool-proof recipe for banana bread. I started experimenting with the base recipe, replacing white flour with whole wheat pastry flour, swapping out eggs for Egg Replacer, and adding things like chocolate chips or different spices or nuts---sometimes only one, sometimes all of them together at once. Then I started experimenting with swapping out bananas for pumpkin (YUM). That was a huge success  and so I looked for other alternatives---apple sauce, kabocha or red kuri squash, and hachiya persimmon have been favorites of friends, family, and even picky teenagers.
I get asked to share the recipe a lot so I thought I'd post here...

Ingredients:

2 Egg Replacer eggs (the resuls with Egg Replacer are better than with chicken eggs): 3 t Egg Replacer mixed thoroughly with 4 T hot water
1/2 c organic safflower or sunflower oil
the pulp from 3 completely ripe hachiya persimmons
1-1/2 c organic whole wheat pastry flour
2/3 c organic unrefined sugar
1 t baking soda
1/2 t sea salt, kosher salt, or Himalayan salt (just not iodized table salt, yuck!)


1-1/2 t ground cinnamon, or to taste
1 t ground cloves, or to taste (optional)
organic dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips (about 1/2 c or to taste, not optional at our house)

Heat oven 350F. Mix all the wet stuff. Add all the dry stuff except chocolate chips. Mix thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chips with silicone spatula. Scrape into greased 8x8 baking dish or loaf pan.

Bake (8x8 takes about 30 min, test with toothpick; loaf pan takes about 45 min, test w/toothpick). Cool on a rack (this is usually the point at which kids & visitors pounce).

Keeps about a week. If I have any leftovers, I like to cover it & put in fridge after the 2nd or 3rd day (depending on room temperature).

I double or triple this recipe and bake 3 loaves at a time for holiday gifts. Wrap in unbleached wax paper, wrap in recycled alum foil. Tie with ribbon.