Bostock: Almond Brioche

Marie Antoinette is often credited with the flippant comment, “Let them eat cake” in English, when the quote is actually “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” which translates to “Let them eat brioche.” (“Cake” would have been “gâteau” –  after five years of French classes, that is one of the few words I remember! :P) Brioche is a sweet, rich bread that is made with a generous amount of butter, eggs, and honey — great for breakfast! I’ve never made regular brioche, but I decided to try my hand at something a little fancier, sweeter, and exciting — bostock, which is almond brioche. Apparently, it’s traditionally a way of using day-old brioche by brushing it with syrup, covering with almonds & baking. Instead of using day-old brioche, though, I simply used a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which has become my go-to book for bread recipes. (Thank you again fro the recommendation, Ann Helen!)

After making the brioche dough and letting it rise a couple of hours, you roll it out and spread almond cream on it, then roll it up like a jelly roll and cut it and place the slices into a cake pan cinnamon bun-style. You top it with a mixture of orange zest, sugar, and almond slices, and stick it in the oven and voilà — you’ve got bostock, which is perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack! It’s sweet enough to be served as dessert, too. I was initially a little wary while making it because the dough calls for a lot of eggs, and the almond cream calls for yet another egg… I thought that it might end up tasting too eggy for me (as I have a taste aversion to eggs), but I ended up loving it! I think the sweetness of the almond paste that I used in the almond cream masked the taste of all the eggs. I love almond croissants stuffed with almond paste filling, and the bostock tasted very similar to an almond croissant — just in bun form with a hint of orange. It’s interesting because going into the oven, it looks like they are going to separate rolls like cinnamon buns, but they expand so much during baking that they sort of merge together into a cake-like shape.

(I love that our new camera not only takes great photos of Mio, but amazing, mouthwatering pictures of food as well!)

This is definitely a winner! I’ll be making it again for sure. 🙂 For the recipe, you can either buy the book, or find it here with photos.