The Brown Bag Lunch #2/Recipe: Whole Wheat Apricot Bread

Venturing out of cookiedom, what about Little Debbie treats? Oatmeal Crème Pies, Star Crunch Cosmic Snacks, Swiss Cake Rolls, or, my personal favorite, Nutty Bars. In middle school, a friend and I went through a phase of buying school lunches because they’d added a salad bar. We’d combine our two dollars, buy one heaping plate of salad to share, then buy two Nutty Bars afterwards. Those little wafers with peanut butter filling and a chocolate coating remained my favorite treat for years. And years. I ate them for snacks in college, holed up in the library between classes, studying furiously because I worked thirty + hours a week on top of a full-time course load. Ah, yes, Nutty Bars and apples sustained me in that broke, sleep deprived, fifteen hundred miles away from home, and running on empty way. But that’s another story…

And who could forget the world of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and HoHos, among the other Hostess snacks? This is a line I never got into. I’m sure I’ve eaten a Twinkie. Who hasn’t right? But I couldn’t tell you what a Ding Dong or HoHo tastes, or even looks, like. Did they have these in Colorado in the 80s? I’d say I feel deprived, except I don’t. I’ve never been a good sweets eater. In fact, my favorite “cookie” is the Fig Newton. No joke. My husband only likes them because they are filling, but me? Give me whole wheat raspberry or the original, and I’m good to go.

But eschew all of those! The point of these brown bag lunch explorations is to not buy processed foods. So this week, instead of all the above mentioned snacks, try this out:

Whole Wheat Apricot Bread
(adapted from the Bob’s Red Mill recipe)

Ingredients:

1 cup dried apricots, cut into small pieces
¾ cup milk
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. nutmeg
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup honey
1 egg, beaten

Directions:

1. Place chopped apricots into milk and let them soak for an hour.

2. After the apricots have soaked, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.

4. In a separate bowl, combine, olive oil, honey, beaten egg, and the milk and apricots. Mix until honey is dissolved.

5. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in wet mixture, and mix until well combined.

6. Place mixture in a lightly greased loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool.