Vanilla & orange roasted apricots

I find that apricots are often a bit tasteless and floury textured in the UK, but this is a way of bringing even the most flavourless to life. I love to eat these for breakfast with yoghurt and granola, porridge or they’re great for pud in the evening with ice cream.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• Approx 8 apricots

• 2 tbsp fresh orange juice

• 1 tbsp demerara sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla paste or 1 vanilla pod

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180ºc.

• Cut the apricots in half and take the stones out. Place in a medium sized oven proof dish, so they fit snugly.

• Spoon over the orange juice, sugar and vanilla paste. If you’re using a fresh pod then I would mix up the juice, sugar and seeds in a bowl before pouring over the apricots.

• Put the apricots in the oven for 40—45 minutes, until fully softened. They shouldn’t be dried out at all - you can always cover with foil if you think they are.

Tip

• I’ve used vanilla bean paste as it is cheaper than using a pod and I think the apricots still taste really good.

• Add a little squeeze of honey or fruit syrup once cooked if you want a slightly sweater taste. You could also sub the demerara sugar and cook with these too.

• Try with my granola - recipe here

Homemade granola

Making your own granola is really quick, easy and way cheaper than buying it off the shelf. You can also add the exact mix of ingredients that you like, so no more disappointing bits of dried pineapple to come across. I’m quite particular about the types of dried fruit I like in granola or muesli, I only really like sultanas, raisins and dates, I’ll tolerate a bit of apricot, but that’s about it! So it’s better to make my own, plus I can also add loads of nuts as they’re always a bit scarce in shop-bought packets.

With this recipe you can pick and choose the ingredients that you like to make your own ‘perfect granola’. Switch the nuts, seeds and fruit if there are others that you prefer; if you stick to these proportions you’ll still get a good balance. Same with the spices and vanilla extract, you don’t have to add them if they’re not your thing, the granola will still taste great.

Ingredients

Makes approx 1kg, or 20 servings

• 400g oats

• 200g raisins, or any dried fruit you prefer

• 100g almonds, hazelnuts, cashews or pecans

• 50g pumpkin seeds

• 50g sunflower seeds

• 40g flax seeds

• ½ tsp cinnamon, optional

• 1 tsp ground ginger, optional

• 2 tsp vanilla essence

• 2 tbsp coconut oil

• 170g runny honey or maple syrup

• 50g desiccated coconut

Method

• Preheat the oven to 160ºc

• Weigh out all the dry ingredients and put all of them, except the desiccated coconut, into a large bowl.

• Put the coconut oil and honey into a pan and gently warm until melted then pour onto the dry ingredients, mix well.

• Tip the granola onto one, or two baking trays so it is a max of about 2 cm deep and place in the oven for 10 minutes.

• Check and turn the mix and put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes, keeping a careful eye on it as you don’t want it to turn too brown. You might need to put it back in for another 5 minutes or so, but watch like a hawk it will suddenly turn! The mix should turn a pale golden colour.

• Serve with Greek yoghurt and homemade fruit compote. Or it work well sprinkled on top of overnight oats or muesli.