Instead of doing, say, laundry, or anything else on my constructive to-do list for the day, I baked. No recipe, just a few ingredients, a food processor, some over-zealousness, and the oven.
Combine:
- brioche dough
- a ripe peach
- all the almonds you can find in the cupboard (your husband ate the rest)
- an egg
- sugar
- flour
- nutmeg
- cinnamon
- salt
What do you get?
From the fridge came a hunk of brioche dough which I rolled into a thin rectangle with a small lip. On top of that went a cobbled-together concoction of ground almonds, sugar, flour, and an egg. Peach slices were arranged on top of that, then sprinkled with a mixture of flour, sugar, cinnamon, a touch of salt, and freshly-ground nutmeg.
After about 45 minutes resting time, it spent 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven. It would have been better at 350F, I think, and maybe for a few more minutes at that rate. I also need to tweak the almond layer. The first problem is that I had considerably fewer almonds in the cupboard than I remembered. It turned out a little crispier than I had anticipated, as I was going for a more gooey idea. Still tasty, just not what I was trying to achieve.
The flavor combo was great, I just need to work on the textures. I have some ideas for tomorrow (and I bought more almonds). It was quite the blanching project though as both the almonds and peach needed their skins removed. The brown flecks in the almond layer are from me tossing in some slivered almonds to round out the quota.
I would give this project a B. Good leaning experience, good concept, execution needs some work but I know what I want to try next! Check back for improvements!
