Apricots: Historical Facts + 2 Compelling Recipes

Do you know what the words ‘apricot’ and ‘precocious’ have in common? As you can already guess, both have the same root and basically mean the same thing. Apricots, those orange little fruits, tend to ripen earlier in the year. Actually, they first appear in June, but some of the later ones come in August. So, it’s time for some apricot joy! Before we head to the culinary part today, let’s learn some historical facts, shall we?

• Some believe that West China is the motherland of apricots. As a matter of fact, Chinese people are very much into those fruits as they appreciate their true value. According to a Chinese legend, a healer called Dong Feng didn’t expect any payment for his services. He would rather ask his patients to plant an apricot tree and that’s how he became famous as “He of the apricot forest”.
• On the other hand, Armenians use to call the fruits ‘Armenian plums’ (prunes armenaica). Because of this, lots of people think that apricots originate from this particular Asian country.
• When it comes to Europe, though, the all-time favorite fruits tend to spread so quickly! There are some rumors that they mostly became popular back in the XVIth century. Many of you may have heard that Alexandre Dumas, a French writer, was a huge fan of apricots. He was actually so in love with them that he published his own culinary book, which included a couple of apricot recipes.

Speaking of recipes, here are 2 super delicious and quite uncommon apricot desserts:

1. Easy apricot cream

Products: 12x apricots 125g sugar 30ml white wine 8x yolks 120g sugar Remove the apricot pits, slice the fruits and cover them with sugar and some water. Boil for 15-20 minutes (depends on the fruits’ size). Let the fruits chill and then make a puree. Add the wine and mix. Meanwhile, combine the yolks together with the rest of the sugar and cook using a water bath. In the end, mix the apricot puree with the thick sugary-egg mixture and boil for just a while. Serve with fresh mint on top. TIP: Alexandre Dumas warned about the wine here: “Don’t use too sweet and flavorful wine. It will take the fruits’ tastiness away!”

2. Apricot bread pudding

Products: 600g fresh apricots (or 400g bottled apricots) 10-15 bread slices 100g butter 150g sugar 200g fruit juice 200g raspberries 1x yolk For the syrup: 600ml water 400g sugar 2tbsp alcohol (raki, ouzo, vodka, whiskey, etc.) Start cooking the syrup as you mix water with sugar. Then add the alcohol and put the apricot pieces for about 15 minutes. After that take the fruits out to cool. Remove the pits, also use the kernels as you peel and smash them. Take the middle of the bread slices and put some butter on each of them. Use the rest of the butter to grease the bottom of a pan where you’ll place the bread. Then cover with sugar, followed by some apricots, raspberries and crushed apricot kernels. Pour some fruit juice on top (the sweeter, the better!) and do the same for the next layers of this pudding. Spread yolk on the very last bread layer. Bake in the oven at 175 °С for around 25 minutes. TIP: You can have any type of bread you like – even stale bread. Of course, be sure it’s not mouldy. Do you like apricots? Check out our apricot jams and many more tasty stuff as you click here!