Apricot Muffin Recipe

This apricot muffin recipe is exactly the kind of lost treasure I love to rescue. The recipe comes from a tiny French magazine clipping I found tucked in my grandmother’s old binder. I don’t know which magazine it came from or when it was published, but my best guess is late 1970s or early 1980s, when dried fruit and “modern” home baking were having a moment.

What makes these muffins special is how they use dried apricots. The apricots are folded right into the batter, where they turn soft, tangy, and almost jammy as they bake. Every bite has little pockets of bright, sunny fruit against a lightly sweet, tender crumb. It’s a simple recipe, but the flavor feels surprisingly original because you so rarely see dried apricots included in muffins. This is the kind of muffins that tastes humble, a bit nostalgic, and just unusual enough to feel delightfully memorable.

Marjorie B.

Apricot Muffin

Dried apricots take the spotlight here. The flavor is unusual and the result is spectacular!

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Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Servings: 12 muffins

Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: American, French

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 2½ cup All Purpose Flour sifted
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 teaspoon Baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 cup Dried Apricot finely chopped
• ¼ cup Non-salted butter melted
• ¼ cup Vegetable oil
• 2 Eggs, Large room temperature
• ½ cup Whole milk room temperature
• ¼ cup Buttermilk room temperature
• ¼ cup Orange juice room temperature
• 2 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. While oven is pre-heating, grease a muffin pan with some butter and lightly coat with flour.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, add the melted butter, vegetable oil, milk, eggs, buttermilk, orange juice, vanilla extract and sugar. Whisk together until combined.
4. Add the apricots and the wet ingredient mixture to the dry ingredient and combine with a wooden spoon or spatula. Do not to over-mix.
5. Fill each muffin mold up to 3/4 with a spoon. Cook in the 400F oven for 20 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
6. Allow 10 minutes of cool down before demolding.

Notes

TIP: Adding a small ramekin of water increases the humidity in the oven to keep the muffins nice and moist during the bake but this is optional.