The Best Almond Brioche EVER!

It will be Erin's birthday on Sunday, so when she came over this past Tuesday for our weekly coffee date I decided to make the same almond brioche I made for her birthday last year. This particular brioche is so amazingly good that I've been meaning to make it again, but I've yet to find another celebratory occasion that calls for such an intense labor of love. The time it takes to make this is absolutely worth every minute you put into it, but I sometimes tend to be of the mindset "never try, never fail" and my ego is a bit too fragile for the this recipe on a regular basis. So Happy Birthday Erin! Thank you for giving me an excuse to make this again. Until next year.... x0

Almond Brioche

Brioche

3/4 cup lukewarm water
3/4 Tbsp yeast
3/4 Tbsp salt
4 eggs
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted
3 3/4 cups flour

Almond Cream

1/2 cup almond paste
4 Tbsp butter (at room temperature)
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1/4 tsp almond extract

Topping

1/4 cup sugar
zest from half an orange
1/2 cup sliced almonds

1. make the brioche: mix the salt, yeast, eggs, honey and melted butter with the water in a large bowl. mix in the flour without kneading. the dough will be loose but will firm up when chilled. cover the dough and allow to rest a room temperature for 2 hours. cover the dough bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge before trying to work with it.

2. make the almond cream: cream together the butter, almond paste, flour, egg and almond extract in a food processor (or by hand if you are brave) until smooth and set aside.

3. dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 1/2 lbs (about the size of a cantaloupe). dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape into a ball. roll the dough out into a long rectangle (about 1/4 inch thick), using enough flour to prevent it from sticking to the counter. spread the almond cream evenly over the rectangle and roll the dough up like a jelly roll, starting at the long end. chill the log in the freezer for about 15 minutes. meanwhile, grease an 8 inch round cake pan with butter and sprinkle liberally with sugar.

4. cut the chilled dough into 8 equal pieces. place them evenly in the cake pan so the swirled edge is facing upward. allow the dough to rest in the pan for an hour. twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 F. just before baking, combine the sugar, orange zest and almonds and sprinkle over the brioche. bake for about 40 minutes or until golden and well set in the center.

6. when you remove the brioche from the oven the run a knife around the inside of the pan to release the bread from the sides and invert it onto a large plate (it could stick to the pan otherwise). eat while warm.

^{{Recipe and images found via Pete Bakes}}

And this is another reason why I only make this once a year...