Apricot Pecan Quick Bread Recipe

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.

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!

The loaf keeps really well covered at room temperature so it is great to have on hand. It’s handy for last minute entertaining or just a well deserved treat.

You can serve Apricot Pecan Quick Bread either plain or glazed. It doesn’t look as pretty glazed, and I do like the flavour the glaze adds, but it still tastes great!

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.

On one of our trips to California I found dried powdered organic orange rind and dried powdered Meyer lemon rind at a lovely little spice market in Napa. It is very handy if you don’t have any fresh oranges to hand.

Measure carefully. It really does make a difference. Be sure to use proper cup measures when making recipes measured in cups.

This recipe is easily doubled if you want to make one loaf to keep and one to give away.

A good loaf pan makes for a better bake. I prefer a metal loaf pan because I believe they conduct heat better.

Apricot Pecan Quick Bread – Printable Recipe

Created by: April J Harris

Apricot Pecan Quick Bread

Course Bread, Loaf Cake

Cuisine Canadian

Servings 1 loaf

Print

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 55 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• 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.

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