Apricot Bread

Apricot Bread

I'm still new to creative baking.
It's only been in the last few years that I've ventured beyond boxed cakes and shortbread cookies!
With more confidence I've become more adventurous and have added poppy seed roll, fruit roll and meringues to the Christmas standards list. I also figured out pies. A sweet little old lady on the internet showed me how to make lemon meringue pie and my first one was excellent! Now a few other things turn out consistently well like German Apple Cake, banana bread, assorted cookie recipes and even candy.
Anyway, I'm getting brave enough to make substitutions for things I don't like to go out to shop for. Right now I'm baking a bread from a recipe I found in an ancient 'Five Roses Flour' recipe book. It called for dried apricots and milk which I didn't have in the fridge so for the fruit I used chopped dates and for the dairy I used apricot sauce (and a little bit of water.)
I do this because I don't believe recipes should be followed exactly unless you are in some kind of competition. It's also an additional unnecessary expense. Dried fruit is dried fruit- nuts are nuts. Whatever kind I use will impart my own unique twist to the recipe.
Here's the original recipe with my own changes in brackets:

APRICOT BREAD

-2 cups Five Roses All-purpose Flour (Robin Hood I think is what I'm using- lol)
-3 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 cup sugar ( I used brown sugar)
-1/2 cup chopped nuts (not specified- I used walnuts)
-1 cup chopped dried apricots (I used chopped dates)
-2 eggs, well beaten
-1 cup milk (I used 1 cup of apricot sauce- which required the addition of half a cup of water to make the dough malleable)
-2 tablespoons vegetable oi
-The poppy seeds on top were my own addition

Stir four, baking powder and salt together. Add sugar, nuts and fruit- mix well.
Combine beaten eggs, milk/sauce and oil and add to flour mixture.
Mix until just blended and pour batter into greased (and floured) loaf pan and let stand for 10 minutes before putting into oven at 350 F for 50 - 60 minutes. (My dough was quite thick and I had to bake the bread for just over an hour due to this)

Apricot Style bread with Poppy Seed