Apricot Nut Bread for Mrs. B’s Dead Spread
Friday, March 20, 2009
This quick bread recipe came to me by way of a wonderful woman I knew, Edna Berglund. She was the mom of two friends from my high school years. Mr. and Mrs. B were always so gracious to me and generous with their affection. She doted on me and as an awkward teen I basked in her love. What a wonderful way to be to your children's friends. She died early this week, on March 16, 2009, at the age of 94 and I made this for her Dead Spread (it’s Lutheran Church Basement Ladies terminology) after her memorial service on March 21, 2009. Alex rest your soul, Dear Lady—you were a blessing in my life.
1 cup dried apricots
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. soft butter
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda (1/4 to 1/2)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Cover apricots in hot water and soak 30 minutes. Drain and cut with scissors. Cream butter and sugar; add egg. Add water and juice. Sift dry ingredients together and add. Blend in nuts and apricots. Pour into greased 9x5x3 pan. Let stand 20 minutes. Bake 55-65 minutes at 350°. (Note that I made two smaller pans instead of one larger one and baked them for 40 minutes.)
Notes: Use California apricots!! The Turkish apricots I used for these loaves were devoid of flavor! Drat! What an embarrassment! I suspect that it would be at least slightly better tasting if I had remembered to put the salt in, too. Jeez, Barbara!!
I snip the apricots before covering them with boiling water and soaking for about half an hour.
I did something else different today: I lined my baking pans with parchment paper (baking parchment). Do that! It is well worth the extra 5 minutes or so it takes to cut and trim the paper to fit the pans. Do it, do it, do it!
One of the pictures above might make you scratch your head a bit. You’ll note a small electric drill in the photo with the orange juice in the “dry measure” measuring cup (so sue me). It’s getting to be Easter egg-decorating time and I have begun to blow out some eggs as I use them in cooking or baking, to prepare them for decorating. I use that little Dremel-like drill to make a cute and tidy little hole that the raw egg is expelled from. More on that, maybe, in another post another day. 
I used my mixer to mix the egg and butter-sugar mixture. The orange juice curdles it a little bit so don’t be alarmed if you see that; it will be fine when the flour is added.
After using my mixer to incorporate the apricots and the nuts, I finished stirring them in with a spatula. 
The loaves are flat—there will be no State Fair blue ribbons here! I wonder if that is a result of the batter sitting for about 15 minutes before going into the oven. I can’t imagine that rest does the leavening provided by the baking powder any good. Maybe next time I will pop them directly into the oven without the rest.
I may schmear the slices with a cream cheese spread I just mixed up. Because I was leery about the color of my apricot butter (quite dark) and how it would look when mixed with cream cheese (turns out it was not very appealing), I mixed only 4 ounces of cream cheese with it for a test batch. In the first two pictures below you can see what it looks like. Feh! I was right—it was not what I had hoped it would be. It didn’t taste as yummy as I expected it to, either. Phooey! What to do, what to do.... 
Okay, Plan B: Instead of using apricot butter, use some of last summer’s divine Lemon Apricot jam. 
Yeah, that’s the ticket. I used a gob (culinary terminology) with the other 4 ounces of the light cream cheese. Ta da!! Spot on! It imparts a lovely flavor and a delicate orange tint to the cream cheese that will look pretty against the bread. Yes, yes, indeed; it will do very nicely. 
Mrs. B would be proud of my creativity born of desperation, I am sure. Now I have to stop the QC tests or there’s not going to be any bread left!!
Beck just called and said that bad weather is keeping them home tonight. Phooey! Now that I know that, though, I’ve decided that I will make the sugar cookies, too. They are wonderful and very similar to a recipe I received as a newlywed 43 years ago from the tenant who lived downstairs in our first home.
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