These days I eat less bread than I used to. Not
no bread, but less. And I try to stick to the good stuff when I do. Like brioche, I love brioche. So when I found out
my friend Tara was going to include a recipe for bostocks in
her new book, I knew I had to try it. She's a bit of a magician in the kitchen and we have a history of searching out bostocks together. Plus I've made her chocolate chip cookies and
they're fantastic. Same goes for her fried chicken, her pickled strawberry preserves and her house burger sauce. All without surprise, excellent. Anyway, brioche
(and bostocks) come with a fair bit of nostalgia for me. They remind me of my first days working in a pastry kitchen. You learn brioche (the foundation of bostocks) early on, it's one of those basic recipes you have to master, like pâte à choux or crème pâtissiére. It's also really versatile as far as application goes. Perfect the day you make it, but equally great days later. If you haven't made (or had) bostocks before, they're essentially thick pieces of brioche, soaked in simple syrup (Tara's has orange blossom water and citrus rind) and spread with almond cream (often garnished with sliced almonds or even dried fruit). In Tara's recipe, the almond cream puffs up around the almonds themselves and melds into the soaked bread. The result is a centre that is someplace between bread, custard and a slice of cake, with the edges feeling crispy like a piece of toast. They're fragrant, but not overpowering, and perfect in hand on the way out the door.
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:28]
+ some things I like: This
rug, this
rug and this
one Outdoor Voices This
basket I just ordered
this book I can't
wait to try these My
baking board These
bags This suit I think we should get this for our
patio/garden And
Rosebud Multi-Use Oil 
PHOTOS: Nikole Herriott