Happy National Pie Day and Apricot Pecan Oatmeal Muffin Mornings

The other day I got word that January 23rd is National Pie Day. Being fairly new to the pie making community, this will be my first year celebrating. I didn’t run to my local Hallmark and search for “Happy National Pie Day” cards to share with friends and family, however I did make a mental note to start planning how I’d recognize the occasion. I took this day as an invitation to a challenge.

Yesterday my Apprenticette (daughter) and I spent some time browsing through cookbooks to decide on my NPD recipe. After lots of searching, we found the perfect choice. But guess what, that’s not what we’re here to talk about today. Today it’s about Blue Ribbon baking and a different sort of recipe from an adorable lady and newly crowned Martha Pie Queen.

Back in November I did some marathon viewing of Martha Stewart’s tv show to prep for Thanksgiving. I love how she structures these episodes where for a couple of weeks leading up to the day, every show’s theme connected to the holiday. It’s like going back to school. With my DVR filled to 97% capacity I’d watch, rewind, watch, learn, rewind, learn some more, cook, bake, create. There were a few pie shows in there. The Pie 101 with Rachael Ray was an excellent class, it was the backbone of my Thanksgiving pie making which you can read about here.

November 17th was Martha’s Pie Show featuring her first annual pie bake-off. After some “how to” segments with the pros, we got to the pie party. The audience was filled with bakers and the set had tables everywhere displaying their beautiful creations. The contest judges sampled from the collection and then each judge chose his or her favorite to share with Martha, who made the final decision. Marjorie Johnson, winner of over a thousand blue ribbons through state fairs and other contests had the winning pie and the winning on air personality. It turns out Marjorie is no stranger to television, having done many appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Rosie O’ Donnell Show, The View, a lot of local programming in her home state of Minnesota and more. She’s a teeny tiny ball of fire with more energy than I have on a good day. Marjorie is a lot of fun to watch, though I did find myself hoping at several points that she’d stop and take a deep breath. She made me a little nervous. But her constant chattering, adorable appearance and obvious baking skills are what makes for television magic.

Marjorie won with her English Toffee Pecan Pie. I played with the idea of trying her recipe for Thanksgiving but instead went with the Blackberry Apple. Thanksgiving came and went and so did my pie but my interest in Marjorie and her baking skills remained. I did a little Googling and came across her website BlueRibbonBaking.com. There I found more info on Marjorie and her background. The site has some of her recipes as well and I happily discovered this link to Apricot Pecan Oatmeal Muffins she made as a guest on Twin Cities Live with Louie Anderson.

I’ve made them many times since and they’re now part of my “go to” repertoire. The taste of the apricots with the pecans is just gorgeous and the ingredients truly make this a great breakfast on the go. So while today is National Pie Day, my recipe here indirectly recognizes this. Now I’m off to celebrate by making my pie that we will enjoy tonight as we sit back and reflect upon what pie means to the Cookbook Apprentice family. I’ll be sure to share that one soon. A very happy National Pie Day to you and yours.

Ingredients

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

In a bowl place oats and buttermilk. Stir to combine. Cover and let stand for 20 – 30 minutes.

In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in apricots and pecans.

Add oil, egg and brown sugar to the oatmeal mixture and combine well. Pour the oatmeal mixture into the flour mixture. Stir just to moisten the dry ingredients. It will look lumpy.

Divide batter into 12 greased muffin cups.

Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove muffins from muffin tin and cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.