Apricot Oat Bran Muffins

"Sunshine" muffins with a sweet crunchy top with a hint of orange citrus.  These moist, delicious muffins are filled with apricots.  You would never know the batter is made up of whole wheat pastry flour and oat bran.

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients, whisked together

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup of oat bran
1 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, preferably freshly grated


2 eggs, room temperature
4 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter, cooled
1/2 cup of milk, room temperature
5.3 oz container of Dannon Vanilla yogurt
  (approx. 6 big tbsp.)
3/4 cup of light brown sugar

1 cup of dried apricots, chopped fine

1/4 cup of raw sugar
1 teaspoon of orange zest

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.  If using convection bake, drop heat to 350.

Whisk together all dry ingredients, 1 1/2 cups or whole wheat pastry flour, 3/4 cup of oat bran, 1 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of grated nutmeg, in a medium bowl.  Set aside.

Melt 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, and let cool.  In a large bowl add two eggs, melted butter, 1/2 cup of milk, 6 big tablespoons of vanilla yogurt and 3/4 cup of light brown sugar.  Set aside.

Add 1 cup of dried apricots to a food processor.  Pulse until finely chopped. If not available, just dice apricots with a chef's knife.

Add 1/4 cup of raw sugar with 1 teaspoon of grated orange zest in a food processor.  Whirl for thirty seconds.  Set aside for topping.  

Prepare muffin tin with paper liners and/or cooking spray.

Whisk together all wet ingredients till blended.  Next, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.  Mix well, just until blended.  Don't over mix.  Add diced apricots.  With a 1/3 dry measure, scoop batter into prepared muffin tin.  Top each muffin with raw orange sugar topping.

Bake at 375 for approximately 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

All ingredients ready to assemble.

Rind of an orange, zested.

Raw sugar and orange zest whirled together for the topping.

Blueberry Crumble

Blueberry Crumble

Deciding upon which crumble recipe to use on July 4th.   Hmmm. . .😕. bored, with the oats, flour combination.  I wanted something, that screamed "summer".  Scanning some of my favorite foodie blogs I landed upon Pioneer Woman.  It turned up a wonderful recipe by Lisa Fain, that really intrigued me.  She came up with a crumble using cornmeal.  Citrus and cornmeal, now that sounds wonderful!  Below, is my adapted version of Lisa Fain's recipe.  I hope you will find this recipe a go to for your summer celebrations.

For the crumble:

3/4 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of cornmeal
1 stick of softened butter, unsalted
1/3 cup + 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

2 tsp. of vanilla
1 Tbsp. of lemon juice
1 tsp. of grated lemon zest
3/4 tsp. of kosher salt


For the filling:

4 cups of blueberries
1/3 cup  + 2 Tbsp. of granulated sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp of cornstarch
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tsp of grated lemon zest
2 tbsp of lemon juice
pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 350.  Grease a 8-9 inch oven safe skillet or Pyrex.

Mix filling ingredients together.  Pour into your prepared dish.

For the crumble.  Measure out the ingredients.  Cream together the softened butter and sugar. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla.  Next, add the flour, cornmeal and salt.  Mix together until blended.

Bring dough together. Place on a floured surface and knead a few times, to create a cohesive mass.

Break off pieces of dough, and scatter over blueberry filling.  Bake for 35-40 min. till bubbly.

Filling Ingredients

Crumble Ingredients.

Cream the butter and sugar together till smooth.  Next, add the zest, lemon juice and vanilla.  Finally, add the dry ingredients, flour, cornmeal and salt.  Mix together until blended.

Knead just a few times to form a cohesive mass on a floured surface.  

  

Now, ready to break off into pieces.

Break off little pieces of dough, and scatter them evenly over the filling.

In the oven at 350 for 35-40 minutes, till bubbly.

Beautiful. . . nice and bubbly around the edges with a slight browning on top.

Let cool. . .and enjoy with good vanilla ice cream!