Sweetie Meatballs in Apricot Sauce

Submitted by tara portee

"Submitted for RSC #9. I tinkered around with this through multiple incarnations. I finally landed on this slightly different taste for the meatballs. I really liked the taste. I think if I had to do it all over, I might have just left out the apricot sauce, the meatballs are yummy by themselves."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 5mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Yields: 56 meatballs

ingredients

• Meatballs

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb pork sausage
• 2 1⁄2 cups crushed butter flavored crackers (like RITZ)
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1⁄4 cup brown sugar
• 1⁄4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger

• Sauce

• 6 ounces dried apricots (about 1 cup firmly packed)
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
• 2 tablespoons sugar

directions

1. Place the apricots in a dish; pour the 2 cups hot water over them to completely cover.
2. Allow them to soak for at least 2 hours or overnight.
3. To make meatballs, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
4. In a bowl mix together all the meatball ingredients.
5. Shape the mixture into 1 inch balls and put on an ungreased baking sheet.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until meatballs are browned.
7. Put the cooked meatballs into a baking dish and hold to the side.
8. While the meatballs are cooking place the apricots along with the water they have been soaking in, into a sauce pan.
9. Add the two cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil.
10. Lower the heat, cover and simmer until the apricots are soft, about 15 minutes.
11. Remove the cinnamon sticks.
12. Put the mixture (including the water the apricots are cooking in) into a blender or food processor, add the sugar and ginger and blend until smooth. (make sure you remove the center cap of the mixer since the sauce will be hot).
13. Pour the apricot sauce over the meatballs and bake uncovered for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Reviews

[Scoutie]

Well, the meatballs were good, but the sauce had too much nutmeg and sugar for me.

 

[Sydney Mike]

I like apricots, especially the dried ones, & use them a lot, so this recipe was an eye-catcher. The meatballs were very nice, but I automatically cut back on the amount of nutmeg. When it came to making the sauce, I added more dried apricots & also included a small amount of apricot extract to heighten the flavor. I suspect the added apricots thickened the sauce more than was intended in the original recipe, but I liked that, too! This will definitely be made again & again in my kitchen!

 

[lauralie41]

I love apricots so had to give this recipe a try. The meatballs were very tasty and I really liked the idea of baking them in the oven. The sauce is what kept the recipe from being rated with 5 stars. For us there was a bit to much cinnamon flavor and I would use less sugar. The flavor of the apricots were a bit lost and I would have liked to have had that. Thank you for your recipe and good luck!

 

[Pamela]

Out of the 114 contest recipes, this was the first one that I decided to try. However, the entire family did not enjoy the taste. The meatballs were good but no one liked the apricot sauce, sorry. I won't make this again, but I gave the leftovers to my parents and they enjoyed this recipe, so maybe it was just our family?? It was a creative use of contest ingredients, Good luck!