Homemade Apricot Vinegar

For this recipe I started by roasting the apricots for this homemade apricot vinegar recipe. Apricots are one of those fruits that becomes evidently sweeter, and more flavorful when cooked, baked or boiled. I’ve had this recipe in my development diary for some time, and with summers abundance of apricots decided it was about time I got into the kitchen and started tinkering with the exact measurements for this fruit infused vinegar.

I lightly sprinkled the halved apricots with a small amount of sugar before baking in a low temp oven.

I wanted just enough sugar to bring out the natural sweetness that can sometimes seem hidden in raw, fresh apricot fruit.

While shopping in Homegoods recently I stumbled upon a beautiful, frosted bottle of light peach colored vinegar in the gourmet foods section. “Apricot Vinegar” the label touted elegantly, the $15 price tag also seemed a little “elegant” and not at all what I was looking to spend that day. So I made a plan to mix up a batch of my own fruity vinegar. In the Hudson Valley, Adams Fairacre Farms is my go to for fresh produce. I headed into the sprawling open space and picked out a couple fresh, fuzzy apricots, and popped them into my basket.

I chose fresh, firm apricots for this kitchen recipe. Apricot fruit ripens rather quickly, and I wanted to give myself time to do a little research on the vinegar infusion process before jumping into this recipe. I also wanted to procure a good quality vinegar for my base.

I toyed with maybe boiling the apricots to soften them, but ultimately decided that technique would add too much water to the apricots and baking them would bring the full flavor of the fruit out and not water the infused vinegar down in the end.

Apricot Vinegar will Store Indefinitely in a glass container with a tightly fitting lid. Store in a large glass jar or several small ones as pictured below.

Storing this fruit infused vinegar is easy, it will keep stable on the shelf, kept out of direct sun, for years. I divided the apricot vinegar into several small jars for storing. This vinegar makes pretty, and useful gift. A pint of freshly picked berries makes an adorable present when paired with a small bottle of this fruit forward vinegar.