So, about those apricots…

I mentioned on the list of what I did with the apricots that I made an apricot banana bread. It was good. Really good. But it kind of just tasted like regular banana bread. I had used my usual recipe, but substituted half of the banana for mashed apricot. The thing about apricots, is that they don’t have a very strong flavor to them. Not like peaches (which I also really want to try in this recipe). But the subtle flavor that they do have, is delicious, and I knew I could alter the recipe even more to bring out that delicious flavor. So I did. On Saturday afternoon, I headed back to my neighbor's to pick the rest of the apricots that had ripened since my first trip. I also picked a bunch of sour cherries from the tree in his backyard (though not too many--I did restrain myself knowing that we're going out of town again this weekend and I wouldn't have that much time to deal with pounds upon pounds of cherries).

I owed a friend some serious baked goods love (and will pretty much be indebted to her in that way for quite a while, though if you ask me, I’m fine with having yet another excuse to bake), so on Saturday evening, after I had picked a whole other batch of apricots, I got to recipe testing. This is really just a further alteration of the banana bread recipe. And, if I do say so myself, I think it turned out pretty damn good. (The Uniform-Studio crew thinks so too, so I feel a little more validated in my recipe creation). I made this both as a bread, and as muffins, and I think they turned out equally delicious in both forms.

Apricot Bread/Muffins

Note: I came up with the idea for this recipe when I was “steam blanching” some apricots for dehydrating and some of them got a little too steam blanched (i.e. they turned to mush). So, to make them mushy just cut them in half, pit, and steam for about 15 minutes and then mash with a fork if necessary. Also, the apricots I have are teeny tiny, so if you’re using larger ones, you may have to cut them up more, or steam for longer.

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbl. ground flax seed
1/3 cup oatmilk (or any nondairy milk like soy, rice, etc.)
1 cup mushy apricots (see above for instructions on the mushying process)

Optional:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
cinnamon-sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan or muffin tin. If you haven't already, wash, pit, and steam apricots. In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a medium mixing bowl, cream margarine and brown sugar. Add flax seed, oatmilk, and apricot. Mix well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just enough to combine. If you like, add in chocolate chips and/or nuts. Pour into loaf pan or muffin tin. Top with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. For muffins, bake 15 minutes. For bread, bake 55 minutes. {Use toothpick to test doneness}.

...And now, I'm going to take that cherry cobbler out of the oven...