Nutty Muffins!

Not to be outdone by the garlic infuses recipes from last week's Washington Post, the other recipes featured in the Food section contained the one below. As it featured pecans, C in DC shared the recipe with her college friends, who engage in a ritual selling of pecans each year. It turns out the recipe was written by the mother of one of C in DC's fellow classmates. Enjoy the nuttiness!

Apricot-Pecan Corn Muffins
This recipe makes 8 large muffins baked in a muffin tin with wells that hold 1/2 cup of batter.

If using a muffin tin with smaller wells (1/3 cup), make 12 muffins and adjust the baking time, checking frequently to avoid over baking. As with all muffins, the less you stir the batter, the better the result. The muffins can be baked early in the day, covered and reheated in a low oven (about 300 degrees) for about 15 minutes.

Serve these warm, with lots of soft butter.

Makes 8 muffins.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cups cornmeal
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
• 3/4 cup dried apricots, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted (see TIPS)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Use either 2 muffin tins with 6 wells or 1 tin with 12 wells (with 1/2-cup capacity) and generously grease the insides of 8 wells.

Sift together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside. Combine the buttermilk, egg and melted butter in a large bowl and use a fork to stir them until the egg is blended into the mixture. Pour the flour mixture over the buttermilk mixture and stir slowly with a large spoon just to combine the ingredients; there will be small lumps. Add the apricots and pecans, stirring gently just to distribute them. Pour about 1/2 cup of batter into each of the 8 muffin cups. Bake about 17 minutes, until the tops are firm and starting to brown; a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Use a small knife to gently loosen them from the pan and lift them out. Serve warm.