Sometimes, once in a while, every few weeks, I like to push the boat out. Push the boat out and suggest something that isn’t ice cream for pudding. Adventurous I know.
It’s summer, even if the weather is doing it’s best to pretend otherwise, and fruit is, quite literally, ripe for the picking.
Apricots have a very short season and seem to turn from thoroughly under ripe and hard to thoroughly overripe and mushy at the blink of an eye.
But when they are ripe they are just divine. Sweet, juicy and the colour of sunshine. Eat them whilst you can!
Apricots and almonds are a match made in heaven. A heaven in which my mother would happily reside. These were made for her.
They are so good and so (almost) healthy they can be eaten for breakfast as well as pudding.
Don’t mind if I do.
Crushed amaretti biscuits are topped with baked apricots then apricot jam rippled through yoghurt and finally finished off with a little more apricot and another scattering of crushed biccies. What is there not to like?
So go ahead and make them for breakfast, lunch and supper. Just watch out for the left over bag of biscuits- scoffing the lot of them straight after does knock this of it’s healthy perch.
Recipe
Serves 4
Adapted from Karen Burns-Booth via Great British Chefs
- Preheat the oven to 180. Place the apricots in an oven proof dish, cut side up, sprinkle with the sugar and bake for 15mins until soft but still keeping their shape. Remove from the oven and allow to cool
- Swirl the apricot jam into the yoghurt (don’t mix completely, stripes of yoghurt are good)
- Crush two biscuits into the bottom of each bowl, chop three apricot halves into bite sized pieces and place on top, dollop over a quarter of the yoghurt mix, chop another apricot half on top and finish with a final crushed biscuit. (If preparing ahead add the final biscuit just before serving to stop it going soft)
*If you only have zero fat yoghurt that tends to separate and are intending to make this in advance add a tablespoon of cream to stabilise it.
**You can make your own jam quickly and easily: Chop one apricot into small pieces, weigh it and add it and the same weight of jam sugar a pan with a splash of water. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then turn the heat up and boil until syrupy (approx 4mins), stirring occasionally to avoid it sticking to the pan and burning. Pour into a bowl until cool and ready to use.