Apricots | Gourmandistan

Apricot buttercream (and filling) elevate (and recreate) a 1980s cake

September 16, 2019 by Steve

Back in the 1980s, when Michelle and Steve first got together, Michelle made Steve a really good birthday cake. Michelle doesn’t remember much about it, other than that the filling and icing were deliciously flavored with dried apricots. And it was baked in our first apartment kitchen, which (amazing as it now seems) we thought was incredible because it had a dishwasher and new appliances. Over the years Michelle kept Steve, but she somehow managed to lose the recipe which […]

Categories: Apricots, Baking, Cake, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Cardamom apricot oatmeal cookies delightfully dispose of white chocolate

December 5, 2018 by Michelle

Many delightful things lie in wait within Gourmandistan’s various freezers, fridges, pantries and cabinets. Most of them shuttle in and out, and are replaced frequently. But some things seem to stay, long past the time we remember why we bought them. Miniature white chocolate chips were one such ingredient—but we finally found a great way to get rid of them. Michelle doesn’t remember every detail of her decision to bring white chocolate into our home. While the substance does have […]

Categories: Apricots, Baking, Cookies, Desserts & Sweets, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Making things a bit sunnier by adding apricots to lentils with sausage and prunes

November 28, 2016 by Steve

Gourmandistan’s old Kentucky home is once again undergoing the Commonwealth’s standard version of Winter, where “the sun shines bright” line in the official state song seems only a bitter, damp and cloudy joke. Looking to brighten things up a bit while avoiding all the heavy work we did while preparing for Thanksgiving, Michelle updated this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall lentil dish with a dash of dried apricots. We really enjoyed the way the apricots’ tartness added to the savory lentils and sweet […]

Categories: Apricots, Beans, Cooking, Food, Pork, Prunes, Recipes

Distinctive desiccation dazzles in apricot, date and nut loaf

March 8, 2015 by Michelle

While we still await our area’s first bits of fresh fruit (please hurry, strawberries!), we have made a nice discovery: apricots from Apricot King Orchards in Hollister, California, a farm in the northern part of the state that ships exceptionally good apricots as well as a number of other dried fruits. (Don’t worry, folks. Unlike many you read these days, this is not a sponsored post.) We’ve long searched for a good source of California apricots, which we find more flavorful than […]

Categories: Apricots, Breakfast, Dates, Food, Nuts, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Carbon Copy

February 17, 2012 by Michelle

We could say we shared ideas with Alice Medrich at one of her famed Bay Area Cocolat stores back in the Seventies or Eighties. We would be lying. We could say we “tweaked” this recipe for Apricot Lemon Bars from Medrich’s latest cookbook, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies. We could tell you how our tweak made it so much better. Again, this would be an untruth. We did substitute walnuts for hazelnuts—only because, while Steve usually has enough nuts […]

Categories: Apricots, Cookies, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Lemon, Recipes, Vegetarian

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Category Archives: Apricots