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What to do with perfect apricots? Make this sauce

Recipe: French toast gets a flavorful fruit topping

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUN 19, 2022

Apricot french toast on a turquoise plate — This French toast showcases perfectly ripe apricots. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

June in California tastes like apricots: Fragrant, sweet but with an edge. Delicate and distinctive, this golden fruit can be tart like a cherry, its close cousin, especially if picked too soon. The longer it hangs, the sweeter apricots get.

Apricots develop sugars only while on the tree. A piece of fruit may get softer after harvest, but not sweeter.

Of course, an apricot can stay too long on the tree – and turn to overripe mush (if the birds don’t get it first). With apricots (as in many things), timing is everything.

So a perfectly ripe apricot is a precious thing. This simple sauce showcases just-right apricots. The little bit of almond extract (almonds being another close cousin) brings out the apricot flavor. Stir gently to avoid breaking apart the apricot slices.

This sauce also can top ice cream or pound cake. Or try it on the savory side, atop pork chops or grilled chicken.

Apricots are in season, ripe and precious.

Apricot French toast

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

For sauce:

½ pound apricots (3 to 4 large), pitted

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¼ teaspoon almond extract

For toast:

2 eggs

¼ cup milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 thick slices white, French or sourdough bread (day-old preferred)

1 tablespoon butter

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Powdered sugar

Simmer the apricots for 3 to 5 minutes.

Instructions:

For sauce: Slice apricots into eighths. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan, combine 1/3 cup sugar, water and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.

Gently add apricot slices to simple syrup. Over medium heat, simmer apricots until just tender, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and gently stir in almond extract. Set aside.

While apricot sauce simmers, prepare French toast. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, beat together eggs and milk. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and vanilla extract.

Heat griddle or large pan. Melt butter. Dip bread slices in egg batter, covering both sides. Transfer slices to griddle or pan. Sprinkle cinnamon over each slice. Fry until golden brown, turning once (about 5 minutes total).

Transfer toast to plates and spoon apricot sauce over top. Sift powdered sugar over sauce and toast as desired.

Serve immediately.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes apricots gardening Sacramento cooking stone fruit backyard produce produce management summer

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Garden checklist for week of Feb. 8

Dodge those raindrops and get things done! Your garden needs you.

* Start your spring (and summer) garden. Transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots. Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions. Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.

* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.

* This is the last chance to spray fruit trees before they bloom. Treat peach and nectarine trees with copper-based fungicide. Spray apricot trees at bud swell to prevent brown rot. Apply horticultural oil to control scale, mites and aphids on fruit trees soon after a rain. But remember: Oils need at least 24 hours to dry to be effective. Don’t spray during foggy weather or when rain is forecast.

* Feed spring-blooming shrubs and fall-planted perennials with slow-release fertilizer. Feed mature trees and shrubs after spring growth starts.

* Remove aphids from blooming bulbs with a strong spray of water or insecticidal soap.

* Fertilize strawberries and asparagus.

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