Sweet surprise! | Sweet Basil and the Bee - Chico Enterprise-Record

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I am a frustrated apricot lover, on a seemingly fruitless quest for the juicy sun-warmed, perfectly balanced sweet-acid flavor of the apricots I remember. Sometimes two or three summers will go by without one apricot that even comes close, and I’ll think maybe I’m crazy, and there is no such apricot. Like San Francisco chef Daniel Patterson writes for the New York Times: “The apricot is not an instantly lovable fruit. To eat one raw is to imagine how Goldilocks must have felt: it’s usually too hard or too soft, too dry, too mealy, too tart, too flavorless. And then, every once in a while, one will be just right.”

Imagine my surprise when a box of the valley’s flat-out best apricots turned up on my dining room table — a gift from my generous friend Ellen who has a legendary apricot tree. Already she has made 6 ½ gallons (not quarts or pints), of apricot jam, frozen enough apricots for 16 pies and given away 10 boxes! They were so beautiful, and smelled so good, I enjoyed just walking around them and pondering what to do with them for a couple of days.

A large and very old apricot tree came with our very old house and produced a bumper crop of apricots about every three years. The kids would sit in its wide, low-branching crotch with their friends and eat ripe apricots until the juice ran down their chins while their moms and I halved and pitted kitchen sinks full of apricots, cooked jam and put up apricots-in-brandy in a steamy un air-conditioned June kitchen. The finished jars were so pretty, I hated to take one down off the shelf and open it.

One spring the tree was attacked by a fungus, or blight and while we were wondering how to help it, it died. We’ve planted numerous other apricot trees that for one reason or another have failed to thrive, and since the loss of our much-loved tree, I have been wandering the markets and produce aisles trying to replicate the flavor of those backyard apricots.

I finally narrowed the variety of our backyard apricot tree down to Blenheim. First because the tree was older than some of the newer varieties of apricot, and because of the apricots’ appearance — a little small, freckled and spotted, not as well-groomed, confident and luscious looking as the glamorous Pattersons, but big apricot flavor! At last — the apricot I remember.

Meanwhile, the apricots on the dining room table. Daniel Patterson remarks that “apricots need to be cooked for their charms to be fully revealed. Their flavors are improved by reducing and concentrating, which is why they’re so good dried.” He pairs them with both sweet aromatics like vanilla and honey and savory ones like lavender, thyme and rosemary. I was so in awe of their sublime apricot flavor I didn’t want to do anything to distract from their very apricotness. I decided to keep it simple. This cobbler recipe which also works for other stone fruits like nectarines was a perfect showcase for the apricots. Recipe adapted from a recipe for Nectarine Cobbler, Southern Living.

Apricot Cobbler Recipe

Recipe serve eight

Cobbler filling ingredients:

• 4 pounds ripe apricots cut into 3/4-inch wedges (about 7 1/2 cups) Ellen’s apricots were so dainty and perfect, I simply pitted and halved them.
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ cup unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest plus 2 tablespoons fresh juice (from 1 lemon)
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (from one 2-inch piece)

Drop biscuits ingredients:

• 2 cups (about 8 1/2 oz.) all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 10 tablespoons (5 oz.) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-in. pieces
• 1 ¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream, divided
• 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

For serving:

• Vanilla ice cream

Step 1: Prepare the cobbler filling, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss together apricots, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Heat butter in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high, stirring often, until melted, about 2 minutes. Add apricot mixture, and cook, stirring often, until liquid comes to a boil and thickens, 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and ginger.

Step 2: Prepare the drop biscuits. While the cobbler filling cooks, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles small peas. Stir in 1 1/4 cups of the heavy whipping cream with a fork until mixture is evenly moistened and a dough has formed.

Step 3: Scoop dough on to a work surface and divide into 8 mounds, (about 1/3 cup each). Flatten each mound slightly to form 3/4-inch-thick disks and arrange in a single layer on top of hot cobbler filling. Brush dough disks with remaining 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream; sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake in preheated oven until biscuits are golden brown and cobbler is bubbly, 28 to 32 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and let stand 20 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

If you stumble across a bounty of apricots, (a neighbor’s neglected tree?) or a farmers market special, indulge in a lug and make some of Ellen’s jam, she shares her recipe below, as well as the yummy cobbler.

Ellen Stephens Pineapple Apricot Jam

Makes 24 cups

Ingredients:

• 16 cups cubed apricots
• 2 large cans crushed pineapple with juice
• 6 tablespoons lemon juice
• 11 ½ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 packages Sure Gel low-sugar pectin, pink box
• 1 teaspoon butter to prevent foaming
• Dash salt

Combine all ingredients and bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute

Ellen’s notes: I am not a sophisticated canner. I pour the jam into sterilized canning jars, add sterilized lids and rings and turn them upside down for a few minutes while they’re really hot. That kills all the bacteria inside. Then I turn them back upright and check to make sure they all sealed, and that’s all I do.

Can you believe June is almost gone? Get ready for truckloads of tomatoes, blackberries and a happy Fourth of July!

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