tons of apricots

[Danimal]

my gf's neighbor's tree is an apricot tree, not a peach tree. if you love peaches, you can imagine my disappointment. Anyways, i should have an endless supply of apricots for at least a month. Suggestions on what to do with them?

[hill food]

ammo.

any neighbors you don't care for? much less harmful than eggs.

sorry I can't stand apricots.

[Gio]

Mark Bittman has in his cookbook, The Best Recipes in the World, a recipe for Baked Apricots...and I had to try it because I love apricots. Basically you preheat the oven to 400*. Halve and pit the apricots. The recipe calls for 1 pound of the fruit. Generously butter an oven baking pan/dish with unsalted butter, sprinkle each apricot half with sugar.....I use organic cane sugar, but I suppose you could use honey, maple syrup or brown sugar to the same end. Dot each half with very small cubes of unsalted butter and bake till everything is caramelized. I was going to use this as a dessert with whole cream, but DH served some with the fritatta I made for dinner and they went together rather deliciously.....along with a beet salad from COTM.

[MMRuth]

I made this tart - with peaches - over the weekend, and think I saw on line that someone had made it with apricots. Quite quick and easy:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/53807...

[anzu]

Not to hijack this board to ask my own questions, but do any of you who mentioned jam have a very low (the lower the better) sugar jam recipe? I'd love one that is 5:1 fruit:sugar or something along those lines, if such a thing is possible. . ..

[cimui]

You can cook down the fruit very slowly over low heat and add no sugar at all. I don't think it preserves well -- whenever we make 'jam' like this, it goes too quickly to find out -- and it will also be fairly soft. But it's delicious.

[anzu]

Ooh. That's even better. No sugar. But yeah, as you say, it's a trade off between preservation ability and sugar level. I've made several "very little sugar" jams this way, but it usually only yields 1 or 2 jars, so they get consumed rather quickly. However, it sounds like we might be making mass quantities and doing the whole jarring thing, so I wonder if it will keep.

My problem is that although I consume copious amounts of jam, the homemade ones always seem to get mold on them quicker than I can finish them. . ..

[cimui]

i wish i had an answer for you re: real jam making, but if you're making a sugar-free version, it won't hurt the taste or texture to freeze the extra and thaw when you're ready to use.

(i'm so jealous of you californians with access to massive amounts of fruit for jarring and jamming.)

[anzu]

Well, if it's of any consolation, I'm jealous of you NYers who can get Jacques Torres wicked hot chocolate w/o paying that $50 shipping premium!!, not to mention real pizza that flops and needs to be folded into two, bagels that are far superior to anything we have here, and apple-picking, which doesn't exist over here. Sure we have cherry-picking, peach-picking, berry-picking of all sorts, but I miss those fall freshly picked-off-the-tree apples that last for months. Plus they don't have real cannolis here. They have ones that masquerade as ones in North Beach, but they are imposters. :-P

Luckily, I don't eat meat, so I don't miss pastrami sandwhiches.

We also don't have seasons, so no beautiful fall foliage.

However, that said, I love the fact that I can go to a farmer's market like 3 times a week if I wanted to. (Though I usually just go to one religiously, since I don't have time to go that often. . ..)

Thanks for the freezing rec. Maybe we'll do that.

[jlafler]

We do too have seasons. They're just not the classic four. Instead, we have early summer, late summer, fall (for two weeks), rainy, and spring (another two weeks).

Of course, this year, late summer came early.

[operagirl]

I've been canning a ton of blackberry jam lately, using a small amount of sugar, along with Pomona's Universal Pectin. The stuff works great with any amount of sugar, from none to a few cups.

http://www.pomonapectin.com/

[jlafler]

Make liqueur. Lots of recipes online, for example http://www.liqueurweb.com/fruitrecipe...

You could also check with your local food bank and see if they can use the fruit. Sometimes they will come out and pick it for you.

[Leucadian]

I too have a bumper crop of apricots. I'm going to try to duplicate a Spanish preserve called pan de orejon (apricot loaf). Not-quite-dried apricots chopped up and mixed with a little bit of chopped almonds, then pressed into a very dense cake and left to finish drying. It keeps without refrigeration, and has no preservatives (at least none were listed on the product that I had). We'll see.

Also try this:
http://pages.prodigy.net/pwolfe/apric...

[amanda3571]

Make a chicken salad: chicken, mayo, fine chopped celery, apricots, slivered almonds, S&P.
It is really good & simple.

[Janet]

Daiquiris, my first choice.

They freeze well. So you can make apricot ice/sorbet out of season, or whatever you want.

Use them in crepes with a little vanilla ice cream and Grand Marnier

wrap quarters in proscuitto and saute

[operagirl]

Cobbler!

halve and pit enough apricots to fill a brownie pan. butter the pan, then put the apricot halves in it.

combine 1 stick butter, 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp. salt in a bowl. use a pastry cutter or your hands to get it to a doughy consistency

use your fingers to put blobs of the dough randomly all over the top of the apricots.

bake at 375 for about 35 minutes, or until bubbling and golden brown.

[operagirl]

Oops. Meant 1 C flour.

[JasmineG]

Make jam! I made some delicious aprricot jam earlier this summer.

[Emme]

apricot jam is the best!

also, try stewing them down simply with some sweetener and maybe a little vanilla or cinnamon. then puree and chill, then add to oatmeal or yogurt or pancake/waffle batter or fill crepes...

apricot tart... make a flat pastry dough, poke with tines of fork, then layer sliced apricots on top and sprinkle with sugar and dot with butter. bake til pastry is cooked and golden.

apricot chutney
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/APRICOT-CHUTNEY-108896

pancakes
slice apricots into thin circle rounds and toss w/ a little brown sugar and cinnamon. make favorite buckwheat or buttermilk pancake recipe. pour portion for a pancake or two onto griddle. while the bottom side browns, layer a few slices of apricots on top of each, then flip and allow the apricots to brown and caramelize.

grill them alongside some other fruit.

apricot puff pastry pockets
take puff pastry dough and cut into individual size squares. top with apricot slices, then top with another pastry square and seal edges. cut slits in the tops and sprinkle with sugar. bake til golden.

apricot and squash soup
http://www.apricotproducers.com/html/...

add them to chicken salad

add them to your fave pina colada recipe!

[Leucadian]

Homemade apricot jam with traditional full sugar pectin produces a jewel -like product with an intense flavor, that the commercial products can't touch. The reduced sugar have an even more intense flavor, but sadly lack the clarity of the full sugar version.

[JasmineG]

When I made apricot jam, I did it without pectin, and it turned out great (although it actually jelled a little too much, the flavor is still excellent, though).

[firecooked]

I made a couple of jars of apricot jam earlier this summer and it's already gone (I just kept in in the fridge and didn't go through the canning process). Apricot season is way over in Arizona... wish I made more jam!

[purple goddess]

icecream.

boiled down to syrup with different flavours... cinnamon, rose water. honey.

They can/pickle/preserve wonderfully.

Hell, I just love them straight and warm, off the tree!!