TWD: Brioche Strawberry Almond Tart

This week's delectable recipe was chosen by Denise of Chez Us. It's not something I ever would have picked because the word "Brioche" scared me. It seemed intimidating! I've never made bread before and I knew that yeast can be fickle. However, I'm so glad that I made this. It's a sweet and slightly buttery brioche dough, topped with fresh fruit, jam and nuts, baked to a golden brown and juicy perfection. The original recipe calls for plums with plum jam, but I didn't want to buy a new jar of jam, especially since I had 2 half-full ones laying around in the fridge. So, hence the strawberry tart. It was either that or Welch's Grape Brioche Tart, which doesn't nearly as sophistocated.

The brioche took a little babying, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was a lot of punching down and dealing with sticky dough fingers, but the smell was amazing. I sliced up ripe strawberries and layered my Smuckers, berries and then sugared nuts onto the dough. If you do make this, be sure to tent (cover loosely with foil) after about 15 minutes, since it browns very easily. I had a little sticky jam oooze-age out the bottom of my tart pan (floopage, according to some friends) so it was a good decision to place everything on the baking sheet.

This is definitely a breakfast treat, rather than a dessert. The brioche puffs up and makes it a bready dish, so I would make it again for a brunch. It's also best served the day it's made, since the brioche got stale pretty quickly. That didn't stop us from eating it though. We're pretty open minded like that...taking one for the team. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.