This delicious ginger-spiked Apricot Pecan Quick Bread is studded with dried apricots and crunchy pecans and is perfect for breakfast, dessert and snacks.
I love quick breads. They are the work of moments, smell amazing while they are baking and are perfect for pretty much any occasion. Often lower in sugar than traditional cakes, quick breads are perfect for breakfast, afternoon tea or dessert. While they are not as moist as a traditional cake, they have a lovely texture. My Apricot Pecan Quick Bread is no exception.
Sweet dried apricots, crunchy pecans and warming ginger make this quick bread a natural at any time of year. And while it may take a little while to bake, your hands on labour is less than fifteen minutes.
Apricot Pecan Quick Bread Recipe Tips
I find it really tedious soaking dried apricots so I always buy ready to eat dried apricots. Sometimes I can even buy them ready chopped as well which makes this recipe quicker to put together.
Measure carefully. It really does make a difference to how the Apricot Pecan Quick Bread turns out. Be sure to use proper cup measures or kitchen scales and measuring spoons. (affiliate links).
A good loaf pan (affiliate link) makes for a better bake. I prefer a metal loaf pan because I believe they conduct heat better and give a more even colour to the loaf.
Unlike many baked recipes, this recipe is easily doubled if you want to make one loaf to keep and one to give away. I recently found a wonderful cake carrier (affiliate link) which is perfect for transporting loaf cakes. It seals really well, is easy to carry and is substantial enough it does not slip and slide around too much in the car.
How Do You Serve Apricot Pecan Quick Bread?
This easy quick bread is delicious spread with butter. It travels well, so it’s perfect for wrapping up to take for breakfast on the go. Of course, it also tastes delicious simply sliced, so it’s great with a cup of tea or coffee any time of day. Serve it with a scoop of vanilla or salted caramel ice cream for dessert too!
This loaf keeps really well covered at room temperature so it is great to have on hand for last minute entertaining or just a well deserved treat.
You can serve this loaf either plain or glazed. It doesn’t look as pretty without glaze, but it still tastes great!
Apricot Pecan Quick Bread – Printable Recipe
Apricot Pecan Quick Bread
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup granulated or caster sugar Caster sugar is also known as superfine sugar
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- grated rind of one orange
- 2½ cups all purpose flour all purpose flour is also known as plain flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried ginger
- 1 cup buttermilk You can use ordinary milk if buttermilk is not available.
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup chopped dried apricots I use ready to eat dried apricots
- Glaze:
- ½ cup icing sugar Icing sugar is also known as confectioner's sugar
- ½ teaspoon dried ginger
- 1 to 1½ tablespoons water or orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C or 160°C for a fan oven).
- Grease and flour or line a 9″ x 5″ (23 x 13 cm) loaf pan.
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
- Add the eggs and orange rind.
- Mix together well.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and ginger together.
- Add to the batter alternately with the buttermilk. (Two additions of dry ingredients, two additions of buttermilk.)
- Stir in the apricots and pecans. (The batter will be quite stiff at this point.)
- Spoon into the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
- Cool the bread in the tin for ten minutes before removing it to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When the bread is completely cool, make the glaze.
- Mix the icing sugar and dried ginger together.
- Add enough water or orange juice to make a thick drizzle-able glaze.
- Drizzle the glaze over the cake.
- Let the glaze dry before cutting in slices.
did you make this recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
Looks so yummy delicious April!
Thank you, Nancy 🙂
ummm, this really sounds amazing. I can’t wait to try it.
Thank you, BJ! Let me know what you think when you make it 🙂
Wow! That just sounds wonderful April! Wish I had some now!
Thank you, Kecia 🙂
This loaf is really wonderful, April 🙂 I adore the combination of beautiful flavors. I’d happily eat this at any time of the day!
Thank you, Nicole 🙂
This bread looks absolutely beautiful and perfectly baked! Perfect with a cup of tea. 🙂
It really is lovely with a cup of tea, Abigail 🙂 Thank you!
Great looking bread!!! I love the combination of dried fruit and nuts, especially pecans!
Thank you, Angela. Pecans are one of my favourites as well 🙂
This looks absolutely delicious April! Pinned and shared!
Thank you, Joanne, and thank you for pinning and sharing too!
This bread sounds fantastic. The apricots must pair wonderfully with the earthy pecans. YUM
Thank you, Cindy! They really do work well together 🙂
What a gorgeous bread April! I would love to try this!
Thank you, Linda! I wish I could send you some 🙂
This si the sort of yummy bread recipes that I like finding.
I’m so glad you like it, Bintu 🙂
Hi April,
Apricots always remind me of my Grandmother, she had apricot trees in the orchard and it was fun to pick them with her, then she would always make something special. Your bread reminds me of a special treat that my Grandmother would make. Hope you have a very special Mothers Day weekend and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday this week.
Miz Helen
Hi Miz Helen, I’m so happy I helped to bring back happy memories of days spent with your Grandmother. How wonderful that she had her own apricot tree! I am sure your Grandmother made some wonderful treats with the lovely fresh fruit. Thank you so much for hosting the party and I wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day weekend too 🙂
Dear April, this looks wonderful…I know I would be in heaven with a slice of this and cup of tea. xo, Catherine
Thank you, Catherine xo
Can you make this with frozen apricots?
Hi Sheila,
I have never used frozen apricots to make this recipe, however I think it might work as long as you thawed them well and drained any excess liquid from them. Please let me know if you try using them as I would be interested to know how it goes.
I love quickbreads too but I haven’t had one recently that looked this good. I’d love to curl up in a chair with a book and have a slice of this and a cup of tea. It’s getting cold down here and some of this would make me happy. 🙂
Thank you, Maureen! That sounds like a lovely idea 🙂 Stay warm!
This quick bread is really tempting.
Thank you, Sadhna 🙂
Thank you so much, Sadhna!
ummm this looks wonderful making me hungry!
I would love to have you share your posts on my WW each week.
Hope you have a great day!
Karren
Oh My Heartsie Girl
Thank you, Karren, and thank you for the invitation! I will pop by tomorrow 🙂
This looks absolutely delicious, April! Pinning!
Thank you, Hadia, and thank you for pinning too!
I love the combination of flavours in your bread!
Thank you, Irene 🙂 It really is delicious!
I love apricots and this bread looks delicious! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with us at Full Plate Thursday,447 this week. Hope you have a great Labor Day Weekend and come back to see us real soon!
Miz Helen
Thank you so much, Miz Helen! I hope you are having a lovely Labour Day Weekend. Our long weekend was last week, we don’t have Labour Day in the UK – I must admit I miss it from when I lived in Canada 🙂 It always feels like a fresh start!
This bread looks just like Fall! Can’t wait to try it!
Thank you so much, Helen!
April,
I’m visiting from Inspire Me Monday. I love sweetbreads and this looks yummy. I saved your recipe to give a try at a future date. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Cathy! It’s nice to ‘meet’ you. Thank you for saving the recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
Just found this recipe on MizHelen’s blog. It looked so good I had to try it. However… I didn’t have buttermilk. I usually keep it but was out. I had dried buttermilk that I had never used so I gave it a try. Not sure if this changed the taste or not. It was good but didn’t look like the texture yours is in the picture. I made 4 small loaves and 4 muffins. Wanted to get it done quicker and to freeze some.
Hi Charlotte, You could probably use ordinary milk instead of buttermilk next time without affecting the texture. It might change the flavour a little but it wouldn’t be a big deal. The quick bread is more of a ‘bread-like’ as opposed to a ‘cake-like’ loaf, but it’s hard for me to know how yours turned out. I hope you enjoyed it regardless. It will freeze, although I generally cut the loaf in slices before freezing so I don’t have to thaw it all at once. Thank you for commenting. Please let me know if I can be of any further help.
Congratulations! Your post was my feature pick at #OverTheMoon this week. Each Hostess displays their own features so be sure to visit me on Sunday evening and to see your feature! I invite you to leave more links to be shared and commented upon. Please don’t forget to add your link numbers or post title so we can be sure to visit!
Thank you so much, Marilyn! That’s so kind of you 🙂
Congratulations your post is featured on Full Plate Thursday,448 this week. Thanks so much for sharing your talent with us and hope you will come back soon!
Miz Helen
Thank you so much for the feature, Miz Helen! That’s so kind of you 🙂
Yum, this is the perfect fall treat. I pinned it for later!
Happy Fall,
Kippi
Thank you so much, Kippi! And thank you for pinning too 🙂 Happy Fall!
This looks absolutely divine April! I love the slight sweet aromatic flavour of dried apricots. I’d love for you to come share with us over at You’re the Star. It’s a month long linky party with new features each week. Please come share your amazing recipes with us each week!
https://www.momthelunchlady.ca/2020/12/youre-star-garden-feature.html
Thank you, Cindy and thank you for the invitation too. I’ve been over and shared!
This was very crumbly. The flavor was good but it crumbled when I cut it. Took it to life group at church. Kind of embarrassing.
I’m sorry you didn’t like the recipe, Marilyn and that you felt embarrassed. The loaf cake is definitely more a bread than a cake, but I make it very regularly and it is never crumbly. I’ve had very good feedback from family, friends, readers and on Pinterest and social media as well.
It’s difficult to know what happened for you as of course I was not there – although recipes can be affected by many things, including the quality of ingredients, type of oven, altitude you live at, even the weather. Regardless, I am sorry you did not get the results others have experienced with this recipe.