Apricot Oats Milk Loaf

Went grocery-shopping during the National Day weekend and saw these juicy dried apricots. Now if you know me well, you will know that I don't fancy taking dried apricots on its own. But my children love it the moment my mum introduce this snack to them.

Having said that, I'm ok when it is cooked/baked with other ingredients. So I decided to buy some apricots for my children 'cos it's really a nutritious snack, packed with many benefits.

Apricots are available both fresh and dried form and are equally nutritious in their content. Apricots are a rich source of antioxidants which are essential in aiding the body's natural functioning. 

So I was thinking of what bread to bake today for tomorrow's breakfast and the idea of using the apricots that I bought came to me. I was dicing the apricots when my son came into the kitchen and asked what I was doing. When I explained that I was dicing the apricots for bread, my son gave me a hug to thank me and promptly went to announce to everyone the new bread that I was making. Aw....

This recipe is very similar to my Honey Oats Milk Loaf that I did last week, with some slight modifications.

Results - Soft, sweet bread with refreshing fruity taste. The apricot bits and rolled oats gave the bread some texture. Mmmm....taste good, feel good.

Looking forward to the kids' verdict in the morning.

Here's the recipe...

Apricot Oats Milk Loaf (Makes a 450g loaf)

Using Donlim Bread Maker

220g bread flour

30g cake flour

75g dried apricots, diced

30g rolled oats

30g butter

5g instant yeast

100ml full cream milk

2 tbsp milk powder

2 tbsp honey

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg

Directions

First put the milk, egg and honey into the bread machine container.

Add in the rolled oats, milk powder and flour, making sure they cover the wet area completely. In the centre of the flour pile, make a small well and add the yeast.

Set the bread machine to menu function 1 (white bread function) and set the loaf weight and how well you want the bread to be. In my case, I selected 450g loaf and medium done on my bread. This whole cycle takes about 2 hours and 53 mins.

After 5 mins into the cycle, add in the butter and the salt.

After about 10 - 15 mins into the cycle (timing may differ with other brands of bread machine), the machine will beep for you to add any nuts or other ingredients to the dough. Add the dried apricots in at this point.

When bread is done, transfer the container to cooling rack, inverted. When cooled, remove loaf from container. Sliced loaf to thickness as desired.

Hope you will enjoy this bread!

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe

Grape Chiffon Cupcakes

Haven't been baking much in my oven lately as I was so busy with the kids and tuition. But last night, I realised that I have plainly forgotten about my son's school snack (Bad mummy!), I decided to do up a chiffon cupcake. I have been wanting to try chiffon cupcakes for a very long time but keep putting it off.

Due to me doing this quite last-minute, I used the grape juice that was in my fridge.

End-results - the cupcakes have a slight grape fragrance and it is not overly sweet. It would be better if I can try to make the grape flavour stand out more. As I didn't whisk my egg white well enough, the cupcakes were a little denser than normal. Oh well, practice makes perfect I suppose!

Here's the recipe...

Grape Chiffon Cupcakes (Yields 6 large cupcakes)

3/4 cup cake flour
90g sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp kosher salt
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
1/4 cup grape juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Directions

Preheat oven to 160 degree Celcius. Line your ramekins with large paper cups.

In a large mixing bowl, sift the cake flour and baking powder and set aside.

Whisk the egg yolks with 1/3 of the sugar until it turns a pale yellow colour. Add the vegetable oil, vanilla extract until well combine.

Add 1/3 of the flour into the egg yolk mixture, followed by 1/2 of the grape juice. Mix until combine. Then add 1/3 of the flour, remaining grape juice and the remaining flour. Mix until the ingredients are incorporated. Do not over-mix.

In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar (must use clean whisk, it would be easier to use an electric whisk) until soft peak. Add the remaining sugar gradually and beat until stiff peak.

Fold in the egg white in 3 batches until just combine. Do not over-fold.

Pour the batter into the prepared ramekins. Bake for 30 mins at 160 degree Celcius or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on wiring rack.


Enjoy!