Apricots are here and you are likely to only find fresh apricots at your farmers market because they are fragile and do not ship well. Apricots are also one fruit that is better cooked than fresh. I figured out how to 'cook' apricots and freeze them when I was given about 15 lbs at one time! I wanted to cook them easily and quickly, so roasting them made perfect sense. Roasting will reduce the water content, intensify the flavor and reduce the volume thereby taking up less freezer space. A half sheet pan, pictured here will shrink down to fit into a 1 qt freezer bag.
I have used roasted apricots as a filling in between layers of an almond cake, a lemon cake, over vanilla ice cream, and best of all in apricot sorbet. Fresh apricots made into a sorbet tasted like baby food, but roasted, they were sophisticated and packed with tons of apricot flavor. So rinse, cut the apricots, remove the pits, place halves cut side up, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with cinnamon. Then roast in a hot oven, about 450° (or gas BBQ with the middle burner off). Check after 20 mins and then add time as needed. Cool and place in freezer bags, flattened to stack easily in the freezer.
Bon appétit!
Brilliant! We've been dehydrating ours, keeping them in the fridge, and munching on them for snacks. We love apricots too.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great way to treat excess apricots, which are a very perishable fruit.
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