Apricot White Chocolate Muffins

I love dried fruit so when I go to Trader Joe's I always stock up on their dried fruit.  I grabbed a bag of dried apricots last time we were there and when I got home, decided to try out an apricot muffin.  I've never baked an apricot muffin before, so decided to experiment.

I find that muffins always tend to use more butter than I prefer, so I did a little bit of replacing, as I always do, to make them a bit healthier and added ground flaxseed meal.  (I've since gone dairy free since making this recipe and no longer use butter at all but that is another post for another day.)  As I mentioned before, I've been experimenting with using the flaxseed as a replacement for butter (see my flaxseed oatmeal cookies) so wanted to try it out with the muffins.  I added the white chocolate chips for a little bit of flavor but it wasn't too much so didn't overwhelm the taste of the apricots.  I was a bit nervous to how they would turn out but they were so delightfully delicious and moist that I had to write the recipe down and share with you guys.  Everyone that tried them gave them a double thumbs up and was amazed at how moist they were! 

 

Adapted from Apricot Muffins

Ingredients 
1 cup chopped apricots (about 22 apricots)
1 cup boiling water
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or line with paper muffin cups. Chop the apricots and place them into a small bowl.  Pour the boiling water over them then let stand for 5 minutes.

• In a medium bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. 
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, oil, buttermilk, ground flaxseed and egg. 
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until it's combined.  (it's fine if the batter is lumpy)
• Drain water from apricots, and mix them into the batter.
• Add white chocolate chips and mix gently. 
• Spoon into the prepared muffin cups. 
• Brush the tops of the muffins with a bit of milk and sprinkle with turbinado sugar (I like my muffins tops more browned and crunchy which is why I do this but you can skip this step if you want.)
• Bake for 15 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan over a wire rack.