A few years ago when I had a bag of oranges and a half eaten bag of dried apricots, I thought a mixture of the two would be good in muffins.
I had already used apricots and oranges in other recipes such as my Decadent Chocolate Apricot Bars that turned out well, so with some trial and error I came up with this recipe. Although these are technically muffins, they are much richer than most. So you don’t need any extra butter when you eat them. They would be great as part of a brunch or a late Sunday morning breakfast. They could probably be frozen, but there usually aren’t any left over, especially if you have guests.
The night before mix
• 1 cup diced dried apricots
• Fresh squeezed orange juice (about one cup)
• Cover and refrigerate overnight
The next morning:
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Mix thoroughly in large bowl:
• 1 cube (1/2 cup) softened butter
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon of grated orange zest
• ½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
Stir in diced apricots
Mix and gently fold in: (Don’t beat thoroughly like you would cake batter)
• 2 cups of flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
Scoop batter into lined muffin tins. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until golden on top. Makes approximately one dozen muffins.
Remove from tins and let cool on rack.
Enjoy!
• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London, has cooked meals for both AWARE and the Glory Hall, and has written a cookbook. Cooking For Pleasure appears every other week in Capital City Weekly.
