Crazy Jack recently got in touch and asked if we'd like to try out their award-winning apricots - they recently scooped Gold and won best in category at The Soil Association Organic Food Awards 2013. Crazy Jack were the first people to bring organic apricots to the UK and they claim that some reviewers have said that their apricots taste like toffee. Well, that definitely intrigued me so I couldn't say no !
When they arrived, I poured some out on to a tray and was surprised by the dark brownish colour - I'm used to seeing vibrant orange apricots. This didn't put the kids off at all though. I'd just weighed some out for making Jewelled Cookie Bars (click through for the recipe) and they cheekily snaffled them from the tray before I could use them ! Juliette thought they tasted of prunes, Pierre said they tasted of plums and Sophie said they tasted of .... toffee ! This made me laugh and I asked her if she'd heard me say that about them beforehand and she assured me that she hadn't. Personally, I thought they tasted of apricots, but maybe that was psychological because I knew what I was tasting.
They got a unanimous thumbs up, whatever people thought they tasted of ! They're soft and juicy, great for eating as they are (straight out of the pack or as an addition to lunch boxes) but also in baking and added to muesli.
Crazy Jack explain that soft dried apricots are naturally high in fibre, low in sodium and a great natural source of iron. They are also a very good source of potassium, which helps maintain a healthy blood pressure, and full of antioxidant phytonutrients.
100g of Crazy Jack apricots contains 248 calories, 3.3g of protein, 54g of carbs (of which 52g sugars), 0.5g of fat (of which saturates 0.02g) , 7.1g of fibre and 2.7mg of iron (which is 19% of the RDA). This is presumably because they are dried in the traditional way under the hot sun, without using any nasty sulphur dioxide as a preservative.
One thing that surprised me is that once opened, they need to be refrigerated and used within 14 days. If you need a little help finishing off the pack, there is a recipe for Apricot Crumble Squares on their website which I want to try out. I'm sure that won't be a problem though - ours seem to be disappearing very swiftly !
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £2.99 for 250g
for more information : http://www.crazyjack.co.uk
Disclosure : I received the product in order to write an honest review.
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