Apricot Bread

Dan wanted something he could wrap up and take with him for breakfast, so we picked up some fresh apricots at the farmers market, and I used them to make a variation on a favorite sweet bread.

The recipe is for a peachy ginger loaf, and includes a super sweet ginger icing drizzle. We left that out, and (of course) replaced the cup of peaches with a cup of apricots. The result is pretty darn good, though it seems a little more dry - perhaps because I've always used canned peaches in the past, or perhaps because I left off the ooey gooey drizzle.

Apricot Ginger Loaf

3 cups all purpose flour
2 tspn baking soda
1 tspn salt
1 Tbspn ginger
2 tspn cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup fresh apricots, diced (about 2 apricots)
4 Tbspns unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup real maple syrup
2 large eggs
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and brown sugar. In a medium mixing bowl, combine apricots, butter, maple syrup, and eggs. Slowly start adding the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Last, add the boiling water. Do not overmix, or bread will toughen. Once combined, pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35-45 minutes. If the cake is brown and the edges are pulling away from the pan, and the knife comes out clean, the bread is done.

And here's the recipe for the icing, which we left off, but makes this a great dish to take to a brunch potluck.

Spice Icing

3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbspn milk
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn ginger

In a small mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Add more milk or sugar as needed to produce consistency you can drizzle over bread... which you should do liberally before serving.