It was a very hot summer day when I found a recipe for baked apricots & a resulting sandwich on Instagram. Jamie Oliver had the idea … I was inspired & decided to give it a try.
A juicy savoury sandwich seemed a good approach to a hot summer day – although you’ll need the oven … Also I decided to add some bits and bobs depending on the stock in my fridge.
Can you imagine what happened also during that morning?
I got my very 1st fashion catalogue for the season 2022/23 – autumn & winter.
I looked in my garden where the sun heated up all the plants & flowers: we had about 34° C in early afternoon. Definitely no starting point for looking at woolly jumpers or whatever!
However, coming back to my apricots …
(I made quite a lot of baked apricots & used them for an open sandwich, but most of the rest ended up w/ Greek yoghurt for breakfast …)
I had about 500 g apricots in my fridge: for a start this might be ok – although on Instagram it was about 1000 g in the recipe.
I happened to have an organic orange & fresh thyme sprigs. Vanilla sugar is always in my pantry.
I peeled the orange: you’ll need very thin stripes. Afterwards I pressed the juice.
The apricots were rather sweet, also the vanilla sugar, but the orange juice added a tangy edge. If you are not so fond of tangy edges just reduce the amount of orange juice (e. g. take only about 50%!) or skip it.
I oiled a casserole w/ a dash of olive oil & put the sprigs of thyme on the bottom.
Then I arranged the trimmed & pitted apricots which I had halved. Just add the orange zest, the orange juice & the vanilla sugar … & put it in the over for about 30 min at 175° C fan. (No preheating required!)
Finally rescue all the apricots & the resulting juice – discard the orange zest & the thyme.
Let it cool down … a little!
Coming to the sandwich: I had rather big slices of brown bread which I spread generously w/ goat cheese, the cream cheese version. (It is essential that you are not tight w/ goat cheese!)
I opted for goat cheese because I thought that the fresh sharp flavor of the cheese would fit together w/ the juicy, rather sweet apricots.
To add some salty bits I worked w/ Italian prosciutto crudo, I happened to have in my fridge. Just tear 1 or 2 thin slices apart & add to the sandwich.
On top there are the baked apricots: take 2-3 for each half. Add some goat cheese & some thyme leaves (mainly for decoration!) – ready.
Enjoy!
- 500 g apricots (before trimming & pitting)
- 16 g vanilla sugar (2 packets)
- 1 organic orange (juice & zest)
- 8-10 sprigs of fresh thyme
- a dash of olive oil
- 1 slice brown bread
- 75 g goat cheese (cream cheese)
- 2-3 slices Italian prosciutto crudo
- 4-6 baked apricots
- casserole (20 x 20 cm)
- Peel the organic orange roughly, but very thin. Press the juice.
- Clean the sprigs of thyme.
- Add a dash of olive il to the casserole & distribute. Add the thyme.
- Trim & pit the apricots. Cut them into halves & align in the casserole.
- Add the orange juice & the orange peel.
- Scatter the vanilla sugar all over the apricots.
- Bake in the oven for about 30 min at 175° C fan (no preheating required!).
- Discard the thyme & the orange peel.
- Put the baked apricots & the resulting juice in a bowl – let it cool down.
- Spread the goat cheese all over the slice of bread.
- Pull the Italian prosciutto crudo to pieces & add to the sandwich.
- Add 4-6 baked apricots & dress up w/ some more goat cheese & some fresh thyme leaves.
