Ingredient Title Chef Category

Appreciate the tasty apricot

Apricots just weren't juicy enough to take my fancy when I was a child. I preferred the dried ones that grandmother hid in the pantry so that her grandchildren wouldn't eat the costly treats before she had a chance to use them in baking. It wasn't until I had tasted apricots spooned from a glass jar into a sauce dish for family dessert that I realized just how tasty they could be. It was when my mother started canning rhubarb and apricots together so that the apricots had an infusion of acid from the rhubarb, that I really realized just how tasty apricots could be.

Unless you live in California where apricots have a chance to ripen on the tree and become 25 percent sugar, you'll want to cook apricots to develop the flavor. Cooking them is very easy and rewarding because they are both sweet and tart. This is how you can garner some of that apricot flavored satisfaction.

Apricot Cherry Cobbler

Serve this with vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Filling: 2 1/2 cups quartered apricots
2 1/2 cups pitted Bing cherries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 lemon, grated zest and juice

Topping: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup finely ground toasted almonds
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons butter, slightly softened
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 375 F. Filling: Combine apricots, cherries, sugar, flour, lemon zest and juice in a baking dish. Mix gently. Topping: Combine flour, almonds, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and salt; stir with a whisk to combine. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add cream, stirring only until all ingredients are moistened. Divide dough into 6 or 8 portions and gently hand-pat each portion into a 1/2-inch thick round. Place rounds of dough over the fruit. Bake until biscuits are browned and the filling is thick and bubbly, about 40 minutes. Serve warm. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Brandied Apricot Sauce for Ice Cream or Sponge Cake

Make a sundae by alternating spoonfuls of apricot sauce with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt and toasted almonds. (Toast them in your toaster oven or a Teflon pan on the range.)

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 3/4 pounds apricots, halved and pitted
2 teaspoons brandy or rum, to taste

Bring sugar and water to a simmer in a saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add apricots, cover and simmer gently until they soften and collapse but are not yet a puree. Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in brandy to taste. Use warm or chilled. Makes about 3 cups.

Apricot Sorbet

The flavor is so intense and the calories so low, that you will love it.

2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 pounds apricots, pitted and quartered

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Cool and then chill thoroughly. Put apricots in a saucepan with l/4 cup water. Cover and simmer gently until they are soft. Puree in a food processor, and then strain through a sieve to remove the skins. Stir in the chilled syrup. Refrigerate until well chilled and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Makes about 3 1/2 cups.

Phyllis' Apricot Marmalade

My dear friend Phyllis Hart shared this recipe with me in August l961. It was good then and its good now.

4 cups chopped apricots
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 lemon's juice
1 orange's juice
1 lemon's rind, ground
1 orange's rind, ground

Combine ingredients in a kettle and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until desired consistency is reached. This can take as much as 2 hours. Ladle into hot sterilized jars (use jars directly from water which has been boiling for at least 15 minutes), wipe rims well and seal. Makes 2 pints; 4 half pints.

Quick Apricot or Prune Bread

You can tell that this is an old recipe as the new term for "prune" is "dried plum." This bread is delicious spread with butter, creme cheese or creme cheese mixed with grated orange rind. It is also good toasted.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups whole grain flour
1/4 cup shortening or butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup unsweetened, cooked, mashed prune or apricot pulp
1/4 cup apricot, prune or orange juice
1 cup buttermilk
1 orange's rind, grated
1 cup coarsely chopped nut meats

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 1 large loaf pan or 2 to 3 smaller pans. Sift together the all-purpose flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in the whole-grain flour. Cream shortening with sugar and beat in the egg. Add the fruit pulp and juice. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, which has been combined with the orange rind. Fold in nuts. Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake for about 1 1/4 hours. Let it cool in the pan on a rack.

Apricots also love working with rhubarb if you have any stalking around your freezer!

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