I’d never had fresh apricot until I picked some up at Kroger earlier this week. Apparently, right now is peak apricot season. I like all fruits, but stone fruits like peaches, plums, nectarines, etc are my least favorite and so I wasn’t sure if I’d like apricots or not. Turns out, they’re delicious and I’d been missing out for the past 25 years =). They have a tart-sweet flavor that I loved! I’m a sucker for anything sour ;). I whipped up a batch of apricot muffins the next morning – sooo good! It was hard to find a recipe for fresh apricot muffins. Most of the recipes I found called for dried apricots, which are delicious too so if you can’t find fresh apricots you could substitute dried apricots or even fresh peaches. Enjoy!
Apricot Oatmeal Muffins
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup packed brown sugar*
1/3 cup skim milk
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tbsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
1 egg
2/3 cup finely chopped fresh apricot (about 2 apricots)
1 tbsp quick-cooking oats, if desired
1. Heat oven to 400°F. Grease 6 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.
2. In medium bowl, mix flour, 1/2 cup oats, the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In small bowl, mix brown sugar, milk, oil, vanilla and egg with fork or wire whisk until blended. Stir milk mixture into flour mixture just until flour is moistened. Fold in apricots. Divide evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle each with about 1/2 teaspoon oats.
3. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Makes 6 muffins.
*adapted from Betty Crocker
Note: If you want a sweeter, more dessert-like muffins increase the sugar to 1/3 cup.
Nutritional Info (per muffin): 159 calories; 4.0 g fat; 27.4 g carbohydrates; 2.8 g fiber; 4.8 g protein.
