recipe 08: goat cheese blackberry bostock

or what Casey calls, french toast for a girl on the go.

Honestly, bostock does not get nearly enough love. She is the unsuspecting unsung hero of the pastry case. But, what is bostock? Well, traditionally it’s made with day old bread, usually brioche or pan de mie. Then much like an almond croissant its lovingly brushed with syrup and topped with almond frangipane (sometimes a thin layer of jam, too) and toasted almonds.

My first encounter with bostock was working at Mr. Holmes- we would throw all the croissant off-cuts into pullman pans and make croissant loaves. Most of the time- to keep things easier in terms of prep we would top the thick cuts of croissant loaves with the cheese danish filling instead of frangipane. So, it ends up having this cheesecake stuffed french toast vibe to it.

It’s been sometime since I messed around and made bostock- but these days I accumulate tons of scrap from cutting out donuts, that I’m constantly searching for ways to repurpose them. Usually, it’s a few brioche cream tarts for friends but when there’s enough scrap to make a brioche loaf, I’m having bostock.

This recipe is super versatile, I’ll share a recipe for a brioche loaf but you can sub for any soft supple, preferably day old bread, like challah. Don’t like goat cheese? Sub it out for the same amount of more cream cheese or even mascarpone. Blackberries not your fave? Or just like not in season? Any berry works great in their place, or even a mix of berries. Like the last handfuls that are starting to turn that you toss in the freezer swearing you’ll add to smoothies but never do? Yeah, those work great here.