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What to do with perfect apricots? Make this sauce

Recipe: French toast gets a flavorful fruit topping

Apricot french toast on a turquoise plate
This French toast showcases perfectly ripe apricots. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

June in California tastes like apricots: Fragrant, sweet but with an edge. Delicate and distinctive, this golden fruit can be tart like a cherry, its close cousin, especially if picked too soon. The longer it hangs, the sweeter apricots get.

Apricots develop sugars only while on the tree. A piece of fruit may get softer after harvest, but not sweeter.

Of course, an apricot can stay too long on the tree – and turn to overripe mush (if the birds don’t get it first). With apricots (as in many things), timing is everything.

So a perfectly ripe apricot is a precious thing. This simple sauce showcases just-right apricots. The little bit of almond extract (almonds being another close cousin) brings out the apricot flavor. Stir gently to avoid breaking apart the apricot slices.

This sauce also can top ice cream or pound cake. Or try it on the savory side, atop pork chops or grilled chicken.

4 apricots on a wooden board
Apricots are in season, ripe and precious.

Apricot French toast

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

For sauce:

½ pound apricots (3 to 4 large), pitted

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¼ teaspoon almond extract

For toast:

2 eggs

¼ cup milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 thick slices white, French or sourdough bread (day-old preferred)

1 tablespoon butter

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Powdered sugar

Apricots in pan
Simmer the apricots for 3 to 5 minutes.

Instructions:

For sauce: Slice apricots into eighths. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan, combine 1/3 cup sugar, water and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.

Gently add apricot slices to simple syrup. Over medium heat, simmer apricots until just tender, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and gently stir in almond extract. Set aside.

While apricot sauce simmers, prepare French toast. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, beat together eggs and milk. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and vanilla extract.

Heat griddle or large pan. Melt butter. Dip bread slices in egg batter, covering both sides. Transfer slices to griddle or pan. Sprinkle cinnamon over each slice. Fry until golden brown, turning once (about 5 minutes total).

Transfer toast to plates and spoon apricot sauce over top. Sift powdered sugar over sauce and toast as desired.

Serve immediately.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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