It's hot, hot, hot, and humid where I live in northern Virginia. Too hot many days to turn on the oven and heat up the kitchen. So I often turn to the air fryer, which is great for main dishes and even desserts. In the recipe I'm posting today, "Artie the Air Fryer"--my husband's name for my kitchen helper--turns out fantastic little tea cakes in minutes. The little cakes, which are really just puffy cookies with crunchy outsides and soft middles, are studded with apricots and have a hint of cinnamon and orange. The little Apricot Tea Cakes are great with, you guessed it, tea. They're also good with coffee, and I can personally attest to the fact that the tea cakes can accompany ice cream quite nicely. The recipe I'm posting doesn't make many of the tea cakes, but, even so, I usually just make a few, stash the remaining dough in the refrigerator, and make another small batch another day. That way, I have fresh tea cakes pretty much "on demand." I also don't risk eating all of the tea cakes at once, which is a consideration, as they're really good!
Air Fryer Apricot Tea Cakes -- Makes 8-10
1 egg
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1 tablespoon of milk
Zest of a small orange or clementine (1-2 teaspoons)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/4 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 cup of chopped, dried apricots
Sugar for sprinkling
In a mixing bowl or measure, beat together well the egg, sugars, oil, milk, orange zest, and salt. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Fold in the dried apricots. Cut pieces of parchment paper into squares that will fit the bottom of your air fryer (6-7 inches, usually). Using 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons of dough, form small logs and place 2-3 logs on each piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle the logs with a little sugar and pinch the ends a bit to make ovals, if you'd like (just to give the logs more shape). Place 1 sheet of log-adorned parchment paper in the air fryer. Cook the logs/tea cakes at 320 degrees for about 10 minutes or until light brown/golden. Repeat the process with the remaining logs/parchment paper. If you don't want to make all the tea cakes at once, make as many as you'll eat (or should eat) and stash the remainder of the dough, wrapped well in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for another day.
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