Apricot Squares
I love apricots, in any form and they are just about my most favourite fruit. This old ish recipe was given to me by a friend and is a doddle to make and delicious. I have been given so many recipes and old cookbooks by those who know me and I am extremely grateful and lucky to have many friends that help me in my research! I could not continue this Page/Blog without the endless contributions by friends and regulars who follow this page. Thank you!
You will need a Swiss roll tin, about 7” x 12”, buttered, with the base lined with parchment.
Pre heat your fan oven to 160C
These yummy treats are cooked and made in two parts:
5 oz plain flour
2 oz caster sugar
3 oz butter
Place the above ingredients in a medium bowl and rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Spread the buttery flour evenly over the base of the tin and press well down. Bake for about 20 mins then leave to go cold.
5 oz soft dried apricots, chopped fairly small
2 oz chopped walnuts
1 teaspoonful lemon zest
1½ oz plain flour
6 oz soft light brown sugar [although I used light muscovado]
1 teaspoonful baking powder
2 eggs
½ teaspoonful vanilla extract or bean paste
In a small bowl mix together the flour and baking powder. In your medium bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla and sugar together, then stir in the flour. Add the fruit, zest and nuts them mix well. Tip evenly over your base and bake again for about 25-30 mins. I turned the oven down to 150C after ten minutes.
Cool in the tin then carefully cut int
You say at one point that you don't know what to do with all your tomatoes. I live in Italy so we have plenty in our veggie garden too. We always make sauce and bottle it (or freeze it if you have a big freezer). I also freeze whole tomatoes, very handy for a stew or soup in the winter. We make our sauce as follows: fill up a large saucepan with tomatoes, a couple of carrots, a couple of onions, a stick of celery, a couple of cloves of garlic and some salt. Towards the end of cooking, add plenty of fresh basil. Boil up together until everything is soft and can be put through a Mouli grater. I prefer to do this rather than use a liquidiser as this way the skins are removed, but the important thing is to have a thickish sauce at the end. We bottle the sauce in clean used beer bottles as we can put beer tops on to close them, but other closable jars are fine. Once closed we put the bottles in a saucepan full of water (make sure they are covered) and bring to the boil, cooking for 20-30 minutes. We have found it a good idea to put the bottles inside old socks (clean) for the boiling process to protect them and haven't had a broken bottle yet. My sauce lasts us all winter for pasta or use in stews etc.
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