Thursday, March 22, 2012

Apricot Bread

recipe slightly adapted from The Recipe Niche

Okay, I'm back after a very long hiatus.  I pretty much stopped posting recipes when I ran out of natural light at night (when I do most of my cooking) and my pictures looked atrocious.  I have my light back now (yea! - thank you daylight savings) and am ready to share some awesome recipes with you!  Last summer I canned some apricots and have realized over the winter, that I really don't like canned apricots. They are very tart and need to be sweetened quite a bit for me to enjoy them.  I preserved them in a very light syrup and it was not enough to make them enjoyable for me.  I did do some apricot freezer jam at the same time and that is deelish, but I have been trying to find some recipes to use these big ole jars of canned apricots that I have.  And today.... we have a winner!  Apricot quick bread.  It is really yummy and can I just say... I think some muffins made out of the same batter with little cream cheese frosting spread on top would be unbelievable.  Okay... here is the recipe!


1 cup apricot halves (pureed)
2 cups flour sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cups nuts chopped (of course, we don't do nuts at our house, but throw them in if you are a nutty household!)
2/3 c sugar
1/3 c butter
2 eggs
3 Tbsp orange juice


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Drain apricots and reserve the syrup.  Puree apricots in a blender or food processor.  Add enough of the reserved syrup to pureed apricots to make 1 cup.  Combine dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl or in your stand mixer, cream together butter, sugar and eggs.  Add orange juice and apricot puree and mix.  Add flour mixture and mix well.  Pour batter into a greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let loaf cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on wire rack.  


Enjoy!

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