Apricot Chai Bread

Apricots have made their appearance into my kitchen. I found a bunch of them for a bargain price and they were perfectly ready for eating, cooking and...baking of course. So a recipe and a story for today...

Apricots have a special place in my heart because of the first apartment me and my husband moved into after we were married. We moved to the country of Israel just a few weeks after our wedding. We were living there for educational purposes and everything we encountered was a learning experience. The landlord of our apartment got all excited to tell us about the new apartment and she kept talking about the "meesh-meesh" and because we were still learning the language, we were catching maybe like 10% of what she was talking about. Which if you have ever been in that kind of lost-in-translation situation you know it can be interesting. Who really knows whether either side of the conversation is being understood, but hey, we signed a lease and felt like we could make this our home away from home for a while. I noticed we did have some kind of fruit tree right outside our door, but just wasn't sure what to think about it, or if it was ok to eat. It wasn't until a few weeks later when I was going through some vocab words to help me at the market that it finally all made sense about the "meesh-meesh" conversation. She was talking about apricots! Apricots in Hebrew are called meesh-meesh, and are some of the best fruit you have ever tasted. Once I discovered it was apricots growing on our patio I was very excited. It must have been an older tree because it was giving off a ton of fruit and most of them were falling to the ground before they could even be picked or gathered. It was a fun experience to have dibs on the fruit tree, and obvious marks a time of life I will never forget. And that is why "meesh-meesh" have a special place in my heart.

Apricots have a great source of beta carotene, iron and calcium, so they are used commonly for skin and digestive issues. Many ancient skin remedies are made with the kernel of the apricot, and also the apricot juices. When apricot oils are applied topically they heal the irritation of rashes, eczema, and has been said to add longevity to your skin. Then, when apricots are digested before a meal it is said to help ease digestive issues and pain by bringing an alkaline balance to your gut so that nutrients are more easily digested. And because of the high amounts of calcium and iron, they are great for your mood and bones. Really apricots are a good fruit to add to your diet, especially when in season to get the best flavor and nutrients.

Plus, they are so cute and easy to cut up. So, tasty and juicy...yum!

Apricot Chia Bread Recipe

1/4 cup of white rice flour

1/4 cup of millet flour

1/2 cup of buckwheat flour

1/2 cup of brown rice flour

1/4 cup of chia seed meal (ground up in grinder) Or flaxseed meal would work too

1 1/2 ts of baking powder

1 ts of ground nutmeg

1 ts. of ground cinnamon

1/2 ts. of ground cardamon

1 ts. ground ginger

3/4 cup of sucanat (or other sugar alternative)

2 farm fresh eggs

1/3 cup of light olive oil

3/4 cup of coconut milk beverage (or other non-dairy milk) with 1 TB of apple cider vinegar

1 ts of vanilla

1 1/2 cup of diced apricot pieces

Mix all the dry ingredients together first, and then add the wet ingredients last. Mix well and add the fresh apricot pieces last. Then pour into a greased bread pan, or 8x8 glass pan. I used a circle 8x8 glass baking pan and got 8 large sliced out of it. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until it is well cooked and no longer gooey in the middle of the pan. If you are baking in a bread pan, you may have to cook up to an hour because the depth of the pan is more and it will take longer to cook all the way through. The chia seed mixture adds firmness and the buckwheat adds a hearty whole grain component. It is a hearty, moist loaf of fruit bread, most likely to be eat for breakfast or snacking, not really sandwiches.

Then, slice into the loaf and have a bite. It's a happy way to celebrate the day, and you will be getting a great dose of nutrients: protein, vitamins, and iron. The chai spices will add a little step to your day, but if you want to avoid them, the bread can go without as well.

Enjoy, friends!

xoxo

Stephanie