Dining with the Bloggers - March 9th
I bet Cathy never saw this coming, but in proposing the theme of Muffins and/or Cupcakes, I had already secretly decided what I wanted to do - and I really didn't know we had an IMBB coming up with the exact same theme! Anyway - Cathy and My Little Kitchen's contribution to SHF # 3, the spice edition was what I liked. Ever since I read her entry on "Auntie Bee's Cardamom Apricot Muffins" I wanted to make them - I'm not particularly fond of dried apricots, but this just had that ring to it that I thought might convince me of the joys of apricots. I generally find them way to sweet, and in a very perfume-y way - you can't escape the taste, it overpowers everything - well, sometimes, to me at least.
The recipe is great in that it only makes 6 medium-sized muffins - while I love sweets and cakes as much as the next woman, it just sometimes annoy me having dozens of cakes lying around - we all know who ends up eating those, eih? On to it - I guess what apricots need is a little taming - and surely enough, the cardamom did exactly that! As Carolyn described it in her comments on Cathy's post, the pepperiness of the cardamom suits the apricots perfectly, making sure they are accented in the loveliest of ways. Dried fruit in a muffin is always good, but dried apricots makes for an almost caramelly goodness, and the frosting I'm sure would make it even lovelier - who doesn't like frosting? Unfortunately, someone had emptied my jar of icing sugar, so I only had frosting on one muffin - that was good. I might contemplate putting in pistachios or almonds next time and maybe a pinch more cardamom - but I'm now officially a converted apricot-muffin lover! Even Boyfriend, who's not the biggest fan of dried apricots either popped an entire one in his mouth when he came home from work and declared them "mmm, tasty!" then started on one more!
This week, Cathy's been the one cheating ever so slightly - but as long as the results are these, who cares?!
The recipe is great in that it only makes 6 medium-sized muffins - while I love sweets and cakes as much as the next woman, it just sometimes annoy me having dozens of cakes lying around - we all know who ends up eating those, eih? On to it - I guess what apricots need is a little taming - and surely enough, the cardamom did exactly that! As Carolyn described it in her comments on Cathy's post, the pepperiness of the cardamom suits the apricots perfectly, making sure they are accented in the loveliest of ways. Dried fruit in a muffin is always good, but dried apricots makes for an almost caramelly goodness, and the frosting I'm sure would make it even lovelier - who doesn't like frosting? Unfortunately, someone had emptied my jar of icing sugar, so I only had frosting on one muffin - that was good. I might contemplate putting in pistachios or almonds next time and maybe a pinch more cardamom - but I'm now officially a converted apricot-muffin lover! Even Boyfriend, who's not the biggest fan of dried apricots either popped an entire one in his mouth when he came home from work and declared them "mmm, tasty!" then started on one more!
This week, Cathy's been the one cheating ever so slightly - but as long as the results are these, who cares?!
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