Looking for an apricot bar recipe

I'm supposed to bring brownies and lemon squares to a Hanukkah party tomorrow. But I don't see any reason why I can't be a good guest without breaking my attempt to Eat things in my Kitchen. The brownies were no problem. I didn't have any baking chocolate but I had cocoa and I used the recipe on the back of the cocoa box and I'm sure they'll be fine. Oh, and it turned out that I'm out of vanilla extract(!), but I added some chocolate extract and I'm still sure they'll be fine.

But I have no lemons and only a couple of tablespoons of frozen lemon juice. What I do have are at least two, and maybe three, packages of dried apricots. So my first thought is to make apricot bars of some kind instead. Anyone have a recipe they want to share? I also have oranges and orange juice--has anyone tried turning lemon squares into orange squares? Other items in my cupboard and freezer that could be used (excluding obvious things like flours and sugars, etc, that I do have). Walnuts, pecans, a big box of animal crackers, a little quick-cooking oatmeal (a cup maybe?), raisins, maple syrup, frozen strawberries, frozen cranberries, bulgar, cracked wheat, and g-d knows what else.

All suggestions welcome. And yes, these are close enough friends that they won't disown me if I don't show up with lemon squares.

Thanks.

I don't have a recipe, but...

What if you instead made an apricot-walnut (or pecan) bread?

Or, I think you could probably boil the apricots in some apple juice or sugar water until they're soft (falling apart), then mash or puree until liquidy, then replace use in your lemon bar recipe in place of the lemon juice/lemon rind.

I've made orange squares instead of lemon squares - they are very good! Just use less sugar b/c oranges are sweeter than lemons

What about making a crust with the animal crackers and then spreading cooked down apricots over it, and then dusting w/ a little powdered sugar?

Or, orange-cranberry squares - same thing?

Good luck!

Ann,
If you pm me I have a recipe I was looking at for apricot bars. Haven't tried them but they look and sounded good.
Paulette

These bars don't call for dried apricots but are very good. Made them this w-end for our Christmas party. The recipe can be found at Bon Appetit's website (www.gourmet.com): Apricot-Orange Shortbread Bars.

Give them a try!

Using Martha Stewart's recipe for cranberry pistachio biscottiI have substituted the dried cranberries with dried apricots.

On the Chocolate & Zucchini blog, she made sticky toffee puddingusing dried apricots. I've been meaning to try it for a long time, but haven't had a chance yet.

Good luck. Let us know what you end up making.

Pucca wrote:
Good luck. Let us know what you end up making.

It turns out I took an even easier and even more frugal option. We had a party for donors Thursday night and the weather kept our attendance below what we expected. We ended up with tons of leftovers (for future reference, Whole Foods crab cakes and spinach and feta cakes are very good, and the roast veggies are among the best I've ever had, but the goat cheese and cranberry beggars' purses mostly went begging. In fact if you'd like to try some, come stop by my office--we still have a couple dozen in the fridge).

The left-overs included more cookies than even my underpaid staff could eat, so I brought a couple dozen to the party to supplement the brownies. I'm sorry I didn't get the try any of the recipes (including the one Paulette kindly read to me over the phone in the middle of her own Hanukkah baking frenzy). But the apricots and all the rest of the ingredients are still there, so I'm expecting I'll make at least one of your recipes before the year is through.

There's a recipe on Leites Culinaria for Apricot Cherry Coconut Bars and you could use easily use all apricots. I made the recipe with figs instead and it was really good.

I thought of this thread today as I was reading through my MIL's wonderful Christmas gift: her dog-eared paperback copies of the Peg Bracken series. She has a recipe for Apricot Pie using dried apricots that I'm sure would be easy enough to make into bars...I won't post, as it's copyrighted, but I guess I could PM it if somebody wants it...

MHays,

The ingredient list to a recipe is not copyrighted. It is the instructions that are copyrighted. If you lightly edit to put it in your own words and provide attribution to the recipe, then you steered clear of any copyright issue.

I once had an apricot pie in La Jolla, CA from apricot trees on the property. It was also my first exposure to anyone who had their own avocado tree. I was just pea green.

Regards,

OK - well, like most I Hate to Cook recipes, it's mostly technique:

Ingredients:
2 cups dried apricots
1 cup orange juice
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
butter
Piecrust for 2-crust pie

Soak apricots in juice for 2 hours. Drain, reserving liquid. Blend two-thirds of the reserved liquid with cornstarch, sugar and salt in a double boiler and cook until thick. Place apricots in pastry-lined shell and dot with butter. Pour juice over and cover with remaining pastry. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 min, then reduce to 325 for 15 minutes.

I think you could easily convert this into a bar, and it seems festive enough (it's a Christmas recipe in the Almanack)

I made my apricot bars yesterday. Since I only moved in 15 months ago, and the apartment is only three rooms, I haven't yet located my cookbooks and Bill was on the computer so I just winged it. I made a shortbread bottom crust, patted it into my pan and let it bake a while, and took it out to cool while I simmered my dried apricots and dried cranberries in sugar, water and orange juice until they were pretty soft. I separated the liquid from the fruit long enough to add some cornstarch and thicken it up and then reunited them before spreading the fruit over the shortbread. I made a topping with what oatmeal I had in my kitchen plus flour, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg and spread it over the top. Bake for another 15-20 minutes and there they were. Mighty tasty, if I do say so myself.

Thanks everyone.

Sounds good Ann and much easier than the recipe I gave you over the phone.
Paulette