"apricot" news and stories

Happy National Apricot Day!

Few things are more reminiscent of summer than fresh, juicy fruits like the apricot. The smaller, distant relative of the peach has a delicious juicy tang and is typically at its best in June and July. Grown in China for more than 4,000 years, the ancient apricot grows in temperate climates, with California leading U.S. production and accounting for 90 percent of the U.S. crops.

Learn how to dry your own apricots here, so you can enjoy them year-round.

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Photo: Cameron/Sweet Beet and Green Bean

These apricot scones look like an ideal way to prepare for whatever the day holds in store. Baked by Jacqueline of Sweet Beet and Green Bean and photographed by her friend Cameron, they appear both enticing and calming, craggy outcroppings of sweet serenity. While the scones look great on their own, the composition of the photo as a whole is pretty fantastic, too. Nutritionists recommend eating naturally colorful foods, but if this photo is any indication, it's a recommendation that stylists and interior designers should follow, too.

[Via Sweet Beet and Green Bean]

Brioche is one of the original enriched breads. Enriched meaning that it contains lots of butter and eggs. According to Wikipedia, there was mention of brioche in print as early as the 13th century, though it's believed to be the descendant of a type of Roman bread.

The that quote usually attributed to Marie Antoinette about letting the peasants eat cake, many people think it was actually mistranslated and refers to brioche. She was saying to let the peasants eat brioche. According to Peter Reinhart, in his Bread Bakers Apprentice, there was two versions of brioche during that time in France. One of them was for the rich, which was chock full of butter, and one was for the poor, which had minimal amounts of butter. There were apparently strict rules governing who could buy which version. By saying "let them eat brioche" Marie Antoinette was saying let the poor eat the rich person's version of the bread.

Brioche is an amazingly rich, soft, flaky, delicious bread. It's kind of strange in that it contains so much butter, but it still turns out bread-like. In fact, brioche can have anywhere from 50% to 90% butter (that would be half as much butter as flour to almost as much butter as flour by weight). The most traditional and recognizable form of brioche is the brioche à tête (pictured above), but you can shape it any way you want.

Brioche makes a great brunch bread just because it's so buttery and tasty. I recently found a great formula for strawberry almond brioche from Cyril Hitz, a very well known baker. You can check out my version after the jump.

Was it a merger over a decade in the making? A case of admiration run to its financial endgame? Maybe it's just a coincidence or purely about numbers. Regardless, it's a fitting tale of intrigue for "Fruit Beer Month" none-the-less as we dig in to discover how an oft forgotten cousin of the plum -- the apricot -- has shaped the modern beer market...

As reported by both companies, it's now official: Independent Brewers United, parent company of Vermont-based brewery Magic Hat, is acquiring west coaster Pyramid Breweries, thus merging not only two of America's largest craft brewers, but also the two breweries best known for beers with apricot flavored products.

Certainly, the merger creates a powerhouse combination of East and West Coast craft breweries, but scratch the surface of these new suds-buds and it begins to paint an interesting picture...

Challah is a popular type of bread, lighter than brioche but still soft and very rich, so it is excellent on its own, when toasted or in a variety of dishes, such as french toast or bread pudding. It is a traditionally Jewish bread, though it has wide-ranging popularity now, and is a main feature of many Jewish dinners, especially around the holidays. The bread is usually made with lots of eggs and vegetable oil, rather than butter, because of the kosher laws against mixing meat and dairy. This Chocolate & Apricot Challah, made by Ariela of Baking and Books, uses eggs and oil, but is definitely not the ideal challah for serving with dinner. The bread is generously dotted with pieces of chopped up dried apricot and chunks of semisweet chocolate. She recommends serving it with tea or coffee as part of breakfast or a mid-morning snack, but with the delicious add-ins already in place, a chopped up loaf of this bread would probably make a wonderful bread pudding.

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