I love egg bread whether it is brioche, challah, or just a plain loaf of humble egg sandwich bread. The golden yellow hue contrasts with the deep brown crust is simply irresistable to me. However, stale egg bread is a totally different animal. Without the fresh aroma from the egginess, the bread looks a little forlorn and I can hardly motivate myself to have a slice even though I enjoyed it so much the day before. In my house, stale egg bread typically turn into bread pudding or pain perdu the next day. However, for this IMBB event, I would like to try something out of my regular repertoire. I remember enjoying pain d'amandes from Boulangerie Poujouran in my last trip to Paris. My memory of this delicious viennoiserie is as vivid as ever so why don't I try to make it at home? This treat tastes best warm out of the oven. The moist egg bread is fragrant with orange and vanilla. The almond cream reminds me of tarts filled with frangipane except that this is sooo much easier to make!
Ingredients
- 12 thick slices of stale egg bread
- 200g sugar
- 125g water
- 75g freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 vanilla hull
- 225g almond paste
- 60g ground almond
- 112g butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 65g all-purpose flour
- sliced almonds for garnish
Method
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking trays with parchment or silpat.
- In a small saucepan, combine sugar, water, orange juice, and vanilla hull. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat.
- If your almond paste is not malleable, pulse in food processor until it is crumbly. Cream almond paste, ground almonds, and butter in a standmixer at medium speed until fluffy.
- With the mixer running, add in eggs one at a time until the mixture is homogenous. Add in almond extract.
- Add flour to the almond mixture and mix at low speed just until incorporated.
- Place bread slices on baking tray. With a pastry brush, generously brush each slice of bread with orange vanilla syrup using the cross-stroke. Flip the bread slices and brush the other side with syrup as well.
- Using an offset spatula, spread a thick layer of almond cream on each slice of bread. Sprinkle with sliced almond.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes until almond cream is golden and slightly puff up.
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