From a member of our Texas Fruit Group:
Texas Black Persimmons taste good, but they're mostly seed and skin, which means they're a lot of work to eat. A few years back we decided to see if we could make a fruit leather from them. It worked great!
They're getting ripe in SW Austin now.
Here's how to make Texas Black Persimmon fruit leather:
1) Gather a bucket load of the fruit. Make sure it's all the way black. Like most persimmons, it's extremely astringent until fully ripe.
2) Gather a bunch of kids. They love squishy stuff. Put kids in old, disposable or protective clothing. This stuff stains like the dickens.
3) Get some cheesecloth or similar straining material. Wire mesh colanders work OK too. I've also used old cotton t-shirt material.
4) Have the kids squeeze as much of the pulp out as possible. You may need to re-strain a second time if some seeds and skin slip through.
5)If you have a dehydrator put the pulp on the fruit leather sheet. (Oil lightly first... we use coconut oil because it doesn't have a strong taste). Give it 8-12 hours, depending on how thin you spread the pulp.
If you don't have a dehydrator, you can put pulp on a lightly oiled flat sheet pan and put in the oven at very low heat.
You can often find new-in-box or barely used dehydrators at Goodwill and other thrift shops. They're frequently given as gifts to people who will keep them around for a while and then dump them once they decide they'll never use it much and it takes up too much space.
6) Hose everyone off. Hose off the table where you were squeezing. Hose off the floor underneath.
7) Check the drying progress periodically. It should be pliable, not gooey, not stiff. It will stiffen up a bit more once you remove it from the heat and the sugars solidify.
Peel off, cut into strips, eat, enjoy.
9) To keep it from sticking together we dust it with a little rice flour. Some people would probably use powdered sugar - I haven't tried that, and it's sweet enough as is in my opinion.
*Notes of caution: a) Like many fruit, there may be some laxative effect.
b) you can get stains on your clothes when eating the leather, too. So be careful!
