Apricot Orange Bread

Did you see 'Sex and the City' movie? Remember how Sarah Jessica Parker gets all excited about a huge closet for her shoes? I would be double excited if somehow I get a huge closet adjacent to my kitchen where I can store all my cooking, baking gadgets and the cook books. There are so many books that I have not baked from even once. Among my huge collection of baking books is one from Nestle Tollhouse. This recipe is adapted from that book. I had a pack of apricots in the pantry, more than enough oranges needed in this recipe and the weather was perfect to turn the oven on. So, here comes this fruity, chocolaty quick bread.

Today is the first day of spring. It is so cold and gloomy here that I was wondering when is the real spring coming?

One Year Back - Egg less Orange Muffins
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 Cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 TBSP
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Vegetable oil - 1/4 cup
Egg - 2 Large
Milk - 2 TBSP
Dried apricots - Chopped and measured 1 cup
Mini chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (I used semi sweet)
Optional - 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't use them)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9 X 5 loaf pan with vegetable oil spray. I made them into mini loaves. I greased 4 mini loaf pans. In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Whisk them together. In another bowl, take the chopped apricots and chocolate chips. Take about 2 TBSP of flour mixture and toss them with the fruit and chocolate chips to coat them. In another bowl, mix orange juice, oil and 2 eggs. Whisk to incorporate the eggs into the juice and oil. Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Do not over mix. Stir in the apricots and chocolate chips. Divide the batter which will be very stiff among the mini loaf pans or the loaf pan if using a single one.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes in case of mini loaf pan, 50 - 55 minutes if using a single 9 X 5 pan and 22 - 25 minutes if making them into 12 regular sized muffins. Cool on the rack in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn them on to the wire rack to cool completely. I sliced it when still warm and that is the reason for a bit of crumbly texture.

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