Asher’s birthday was last Monday and it happened to coincide with our class trip to Friuli. Given that it’s not so much fun to kick off your birthday at 6 am with a 4 hour bus ride, I decided to make a celebratory portable breakfast in his honor. Nothing screams breakfast like apricot yogurt, with fresh apricots, with apricot glaze. In cake form.
These yogurt cakes were supposed to be poundcake-like in texture but ended up being termed “moist muffins” by my classmates. It’s a term that lends itself easily to dirty jokes (I’ll leave it up to your imagination), but it’s undeniably spot on. Fact: they are muffin shaped and they are intensely moist. I’d say they are just the thing for a 6 am bus ride but honestly they were too sticky to be 100% travel convenient.
Triple Apricot “Moist Muffins”
(Makes 12 jumbo muffins)
Ingredients:
300 grams (approx 1 cup plus 2 tbs) of whole milk apricot yogurt. If you can’t find apricot yogurt, plain whole milk yogurt flavored with a tbs or so of apricot jam also does the trick.
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla powder (I would use extract if in the U.S.)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup chopped fresh apricots (approx 6 large ones)
1 cup apricot jam 2 tbs water
Steps:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a jumbo cupcake pan with cupcake liners. I had to use creme caramel disposable cups here for lack of a cupcake pan. They are a little larger than your standard cupcake mold so this recipe is geared more towards a jumbo cupcake pan. If using a regular cupcake pan, you might end up with a few more cupcakes and might also have to cut down a little on the cooking time. Chop up apricots and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the apricot yogurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla powder. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in all at once. Fold in the chopped apricots and vegetable oil until all mixed.
3. Fill the jumbo cupcake molds about 3/4 of the way and bake in the oven for approximately 35 minutes or until they are dark golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool for about 10 minutes.
4. While the cupcakes are cooling, stir 1 cup of apricot jam and 2 tbs of water together over medium heat. The glaze should be hot and slightly runny. When cupcakes have cooled a little, spoon a tbs or so of the apricot glaze so that the tops of the muffins are coated. Allow the glaze to cool and thicken a little on top. Enjoy!