Nutty apricot tea cakes

Some of you may realize by now that I'm always reading baking and pastry books and lately have been thinking of ways to increase my use of nuts, seeds and whole grains in my baking endeavors. Often my projects come about as a way of using up ingredients I happen to have in my fridge or cupboard. What's not to like about that, eh?

This time I was intent on some apricot purée that's been in my freezer for a few months - time to make something tasty! And, to top it off, I had some buttermilk in the fridge that simply HAD to go into something hearty, healthy and delicious.

This is my take on a pretty basic tea cake recipe that turns out deliciously moist with a bit of crunch from nuts and pumpkin seeds. It actually reminds me of both date nut and Boston brown bread that we used to eat when we were kids - hard to describe the fruity side of those, but if you've eaten those particular goodies, you know what I'm talkin 'bout.

For this project I used both whole wheat pastry and all purpose flours, along with some of my favorite spices, coriander and ginger, plus a dash of cinnamon. I generally tone down or don't use cinnamon at all in my baking, since the Steve-meister holds an odd aversion to that particular spice.

It's a straight forward cake process - whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars, add the fruit puree, add the eggs, then alternate the addition of the dry ingredients and buttermilk. Pretty basic. With this one, some of the chopped walnuts, pecans and pumpkin seeds are added to the dry ingredients and a small portion are set aside for garnish before baking.

Two of my favorite straight-sided Silikomart flexi-molds were given the honor for the baking process - one smaller/taller and one wider/shorter - both muffin style and shapes I find just so right for tea cakes.

Ready for the oven

All baked up

These babies baked up moist and dense from the presence of the apricot purée, and the nuts and pumpkin seeds added just the right crunch.

Here's the recipe PDF as well as outlined below. This makes two 9"x5" loaves or many small cakes, depending on the size mold you choose.

• Approximately 45 g (1/2 cup) each walnuts and pecans (or choose your own nuts)

• 85 g (scant 3/4 cup) pumpkin seeds

• 290 g (2 1/4 cup) all purpose flour

• 150 g (1 1/4 cup) whole wheat pastry flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon ground coriander

• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• several fresh grates of nutmeg (you decide - I prefer my nutmeg on the subtle side)

• a pinch of cinnamon (or more to your taste)

• 227 g (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 185 g (scant well packed cup) brown sugar (I used light but try dark if you'd prefer)

• 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar

• Approximately 350 g (~12 ounces) apricot puree (or try pear or pumpkin!)

• 4 large eggs, room temperature

• 180 ml (3/4 cup) buttermilk, room temperature

1. Heat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Spread walnuts, pecans and pumpkin seeds on a sheet pan. Toast for about 10 minutes until fragrant. Once cooled, do a medium-fine chop.
3. Reduce the oven to 325ºF. Have your silicone molds at the ready (no buttering necessary), or, if using two 9"x5" loaf pans, butter and flour them.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together the two flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.  Stir in the chopped nuts and seeds but reserve a few tablespoons for garnish.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugars and mix on medium high until will blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
6. Add apricot purée and mix for a couple of minutes until incorporated. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing each until blended before adding the next.
7. Now add the flour/spice mixture alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined and finish off by hand with a spatula.
8. Pour the batter into your chosen molds or pans, smooth tops, sprinkle reserved nuts/seeds on top and pop into the oven.
9. Bake small cakes around 20 minutes - remember - it's your job to keep an eye on things! You're looking for a tester inserted in the center to come out clean. Large loaves bake 50-60 minutes.
10. Let your cakes cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes before unmolding, then let cool completely before storing in an airtight container. These will keep at room temp for several days, or wrap and freeze them for up to two months.

Enjoy!

Cran-oat-almond shortbread

Before we jump in, don't forget to check out this month's specialties - Valentine's goodies and my favorite chocolate ganache tart!

Recently inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh's book "Sweet", I put together these absolutely wonderful shortbread cookies (or biscuits as the Brits would say) full of cranberries, oats and almonds. You can choose whether you'd like a white chocolate garnish or prefer them au naturel. Either way they are SO GOOD.

Some of the ingredients require a bit of prep before putting the final dough together - chop cranberries and soak them in OJ; toast, cool and chop almonds; have butter at room temp - that kind of stuff. Simple but requires some planning on your part. It comes back to that important and well worn advice - always read the recipe through at least twice before you begin.

I tweaked the recipe, which calls for both all purpose and whole wheat flour, to create my own version using white whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour. As I continue to experiment with different whole grain flours, it's fun to learn about the various nuances of each.

White whole wheat flour is ground from hard white whole wheat, whereas whole wheat pastry flour comes from whole grain soft white wheat. Each contains all the nutrients that come from the whole grain, including the outer bran full of fiber, B vitamins and trace minerals and the small central germ containing antioxidants, vitamin E, B vitamins and healthy fats.

Whole wheat pastry flour is softer and thus lends itself well to things like scones, biscuits, flaky pie and tart crusts and fluffy pancakes. I'll be playing around with different combos and variations as time goes on. Cool. Always so much to learn.

Now for my version of the recipe and many thanks to Yotam and Helen!

1. Heat your oven to 350ºF. Have a couple of 1/2 sheet pans lined with parchment at the ready.
2. Chop 125 g dried cranberries in half (unless they're already chopped), place them in a microwave safe bowl in 25 ml of orange juice and zap for about 10 seconds. Let them soak while you're getting other things ready. 
3. Place 150 g natural raw skin-on almonds on a baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes. Let cool, rough chop and place in a large bowl.
4. Add 175 g white whole wheat flour, 50 g whole wheat pastry flour, 150 g old fashioned oats and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the bowl with the almonds. Set aside.
5. Put 227 g room temperature unsalted butter, 100 g granulated sugar into which you've rubbed the zest of one or two large oranges (use two for that extra citrus zip!) into a mixer bowl with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium about 2 minutes until blended and light.
6. Add the nut-oat-flour mixture and beat on low to bring it together.
7. Add in the cranberries along with the orange juice and combine on low to mix in.
8. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, bring it into a ball and divide in half. Roll each half to about 1/4 thick. I find it works well, particularly with a slightly sticky dough, to roll between two pieces of film wrap - keeps things neat!
9. Chill the dough for an hour or so before cutting out. Choose whatever shape and size you'd like, cut and place on the parchment lined sheets. As you can see I tried some different versions.
10. Bake about 18 minutes until lightly browned. Cool completely.

If you choose to garnish your cookies with white chocolate, either drizzled, edge-dipped or spread in a layer, I found it worked best for me to microwave my Guittard wafers at half power for 30-45 second bursts, stirring until melted. My results are rustic for sure, but I. LOVE. THESE. COOKIES.