Golden Beet Apricot Almond Muffin Pie
Makes two muffin pies.
Ingredients:
1¾ cup organic unbleached white flour
1 cup organic oat flour
½ cup organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder, slightly rounded
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup diced organic celery
3 small fresh organic golden beets
½ cup organic walnut oil
3 teaspoons organic almond extract
¼ cup unsweetened organic applesauce
4 large cage-free organic egg whites
½ cup vanilla seltzer water
½ cup organic whole milk
⅔ cup Apricot Spread
⅓ cup organic apricot yogurt
1 cup unsalted roasted whole almonds
1 cup unsweetened organic dried apricots, chopped
Instructions:
Prepare the Apricot Spread in advance (see recipe below).
Prepare the beets in advance: cut off the leaves about 3” from the beets, put the beets in a pot of cool water, bring the water to a boil and cook the beets for about 45 minutes or until they are tender. Make sure to replenish the water as they boil so that the beets are always covered with water.
Under cold running water, remove the skin of the beets with a knife, slice the beets, and chop them into 1” chunks. Set the beet chunks aside.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Grease two round baking pans.
In a large mixing bowl, sift the dry ingredients together: white flour, oat flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
Rinse a stalk of celery, remove the stringy exterior skin with a knife, cut it in half and dice it. This should be about ½ a cup of celery.
Put the beets into a food processor with the celery and purée them with the oil, almond extract and applesauce until the purée is a smooth creamy consistency. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until they’re frothy.
Add the seltzer water to the egg whites and whisk until frothy and bubbly.
Add milk, Apricot Spread and yogurt to the egg whites and whisk until well blended and frothy.
Add the beet-celery purée (it should be about 1 cup of purée) to the egg white mixture. Whisk until creamy and frothy.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and slowly add the liquid ingredients, blending slowly. Don’t over stir the batter.
Chop the almonds.
Fold the apricots and the almonds gently into the batter.
Split the batter between the two round baking pans, filling each pan about ½” with batter.
Bake for 16-18 minutes (or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean).
Cool the muffin pies partially in their pans. Remove each muffin round by placing a cutting board over the top of the pan, carefully flipping the pan over with the cutting board on top, so the pan is upside down on the cutting board. Remove the pan and the round muffin pie should be left on the cutting board upside down.
When still warm, slice the upside down muffin round into pie-slice shapes.
Keeping the slices upside down, spread a layer of warmed Apricot Spread on top of each pie slice and top with Whipped Cream. Serve immediately.
Shortcut: use pre-made apricot pie filling instead of Apricot Spread and use pre-made whipped cream.
Apricot Spread
Ingredients:
1 bag unsweetened dried organic apricots, 12-ounce, quartered
4 cups naturally sweetened organic apple juice
1 cup water
¾ cup organic cane sugar
¼ cup quick-cooking tapioca
Juice of ½ a lemon, strained
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon organic vanilla extract
Instructions:
Reconstitute the quartered dried apricots in a large saucepan by simmering them with the apple juice over medium heat until they are swollen, mushy and have absorbed most of the juice (add 1 cup of apple juice at a time, waiting until almost all of the liquid is gone before adding the next cup, stirring occasionally). This takes about an hour.
When the apricots are mushy, add the sugar and simmer the apricots until the sugar granules dissolve, stirring so they don’t stick to the pan.
Add the strained lemon juice to the apricots.
Add the cinnamon and the vanilla to the apricots.
Turn the apricots down to low, add one cup of water, and add the tapioca, stirring it into the mixture. Let the tapioca soak for 5-15 minutes while the temperature is turned down, stirring occasionally, until it “blooms.”
Bring the apricots to a full boil on medium-high heat while stirring constantly (you may need to add a little more water to get it to a boil so the tapioca can dissolve).
Remove the apricots from the heat, and pour the thickened apricot mixture into a food processor. Purée it until it’s smooth and creamy.
Store the Apricot Spread in Ball jars in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Vanilla Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1 pint heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 teaspoons organic pure vanilla extract
Instructions:
Chill a metal mixing bowl and metal beaters in the freezer before using.
Whip cream until it forms soft peaks.
Add the powdered sugar and continue to whip until slightly harder peaks form.
Add the vanilla extract, whip until combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Shortcut: use canned whipped cream.
