Apricot Strawberry White Chocolate Muffins

I have been loving my basket of organic, locally-grown fruits and veggies that I get each week through Abundant Harvest Organics. Last Saturday, my share included about 15 apriums (a cross between a plum and apricot, similar to a pluot, but more apricot than plum). I also bought a large box of California strawberries from a fruit stand on the south side of town, which I planned to use to make my Ma's Strawberry Jam. But even after making the jam, I had about 6 cups of strawberries leftover and still didn't know what to do with those apriums.  I came across a recipe for Apricot Pecan Muffins and decided to embellish it a little. I ended up with a batch of de-li-cious muffins that the whole family loved. Here's the new and improved recipe:

Apricot Strawberry White Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tbsp oat bran
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup milk
• 4 apricots (or apriums) peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped
• 1 cup strawberries, stems removed and coarsely chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 4 oz. white chocolate bar, coarsely chopped (I used Ghirardelli) 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, wheat bran, baking powder, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and set aside.
3. In a large measuring cup, whisk the eggs until frothy and light yellow. Beat in the butter, then the milk, until well blended. Pour this mixture into the well in the center of the flour mixture. Stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Do not overmix the batter or the muffins will be tough. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the apricots, strawberries, white chocolate chunks, and pecans.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling the cups 3/4 full. Bake the muffins until they are peaked and golden brown, about 20 minutes. The muffins are done when a wooden toothpick inserted in the centre comes out almost clean, with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 3 minutes before removing them. 
5. Makes 18 muffins