Apricot Buttermilk Slice

I’m undoubtedly a summer person. Being brought up in the tropics, I thrive in sweltering, hot conditions and morph into a whiney, miserable, shivering woman who constantly feels suffocated by the numerous layers needed to keep herself warm. So in a sense, it’s quite unfortunate for me to be now living in Sydney, where the weather is both unpredictable and never consistently sunny/warm enough for my liking (fingers crossed for this summer). That being said, I love Sydney and realise there are much worse places weatherwise lol.

So now that it’s December, we’re in stone fruit season – yet another reason I simply adore summer. Currently up in Cairns, I’ve lost access to all my recipe books down in Sydney. Never fear, the trusty and easily accessible Delicious Magazine is here! Of all the juicy, sweet stone fruits, I must admit, I tend to neglect the humble apricot. For some reason every time I think of apricots, my mind conjures up images of giant, rubbery dried ones:S So this week, while at the grocers, I noticed a tempting display of apricots and the very next day, saw this recipe in this month’s Delicious magazine – How can I say no?

Recipe from Delicious Magazine, December 2008/January 2009, pg 178.

Ingredients
200g self raising flour (1 1/3 cups)
150g almond meal
200g caster sugar
175 unsalted butter/margarine
150ml buttermilk
3 large free range eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
6 ripe apricots, stoned and halved
2 tbs runny honey
50g (2/3 cup) flaked almonds

Apricots

Method
After processing the flour, almond meal and caster sugar together in a food processor, the remaining ingredients (except the apricots, honey and almonds) are added and pulsed until the mixture is just combined. I’ll use this opportunity to advocate for the use of margarine (plant based fat) instead of butter. I used it in this recipe:)

This mixture is then spread into a greased and lined 30X23 cm (5cm high) baking pan, and topped with the apricot halves.

The runny honey, I used a little more than 2 tbs, was drizzled on top, followed by a scattering of the almond flakes.

The recipe recommends baking for 40min in an 180˚C oven, until a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Up here in Cairns, it took an extra 20 min, but since all ovens are different, check at 40 min and see how you go.

Cool for 20 min, then slice. The recipe also gave ingredients for a honey cream to serve, but I simply laced some natural yoghurt I found in the fridge with honey.

YUM!!!

Well, that’s definitely miles away from rubbery dried apricots! This recipes also fits in well with the the baking bug that I’ve caught since I’ve been up here, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I love the smell of baking wafting though the house and now there’s an abundance of yummy baked goods in the house:)