Apricot oat bars are one of the first recipes I ever made without refined sugar. After tasting those, I was hooked on apricots! This last week, I thought back to those delicious chewy bars made from dried apricots and preserves. The flavors of apricots are an incredible natural sweetener and I couldn’t get the craving out of my mind.
I turned that craving into something else – sweet, soft muffins. These muffins contain all the apricot bars flavors without the gooey jam portion. However, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t slather jam on these, preferably when they are still warm and steamy.
Apricots add a wonderful dimension of sweetness to baked treats because they have a rich chewy texture. The chewiness in apricots accentuates the sweetness without going overboard. A little bit of cinnamon and vanilla further enhance the flavors to make the perfect anytime treat. These are fabulous in the mornings with your favorite beverage or as a healthier night-time dessert. Above all, you’ll be happy to know they are filled with whole grains and minimal amounts of fat and sugar. Pure and simple, these are a delicious natural sweet treat!
Apricot Oat Muffins (vegan)
1 cup Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Oat
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 cup Coconut Sugar
2/3 cup Almond Milk
1/4 cup Neutral Oil of choice
1 1/2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Tablespoon Ground Flax in 1/4 cup Applesauce
scant 1/2 cup finely chopped, Dried Apricot
1 Tablespoon Oats
1 Tablespoon Coconut Sugar
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin pan with liners and lightly spray with cooking spray. Combine applesauce and flax in a small bowl. In a mixing bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients. In another bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients except for the apricots. Add the dry to the wet and mix until just combined. Carefully fold in apricots and then spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups about 3/4 the way full. You should get about 10 muffins. Sprinkle the 1 tablespoon of oats and coconut sugar over the muffins and bake for 14-18 minutes.
Halley says
I would love to try these with both dried and fresh apricots! These look so good!!
Janice says
Would these still work with fresh apricots and whole (cow’s) milk?
Chelsea says
We have not tested this recipe with those substitutions. Fresh apricots have a lot more moisture that dried, so if you tried using those, you may need less milk. Cow’s milk would make these really rich and probably really moist, so you may need less of that as well. Sorry, we haven’t tried those but they may work great! We would love to know if you like those substitutions if you do try them! Thanks!
Sarah@WholeandHeavenlyOven says
These look so great! I love the combination of oats and apricots. Sounds yummy!
Chelsea says
Thank you, Sarah!
shannon says
yummy! i love apricots. i usually just eat them plain but will have to try these muffins with them.
Chelsea says
We hadn’t tried baking apricots quite like this before.. it’s definitely worth a try!