Vacation Pie and an Apricot Brioche Tart for a very late TWD

Happy Thursday! I returned from visiting my brother and his girlfriend in Boston Tuesday afternoon, so I started my TWD recipe that evening and finished it Wednesday morning. I had this sweet idea that I would bake the selected brioche tart for my family (my mom was also there) while I was on vacation, but nice weather and a fun city are hardly conducive to baking and blogging, so it didn’t happen. It was kind of nice to have a break, actually. Quite surprisingly, I ran quite a bit while I was on vacation, which is usually the first thing to go. Lucky for us, another family member did bake! We went to Connecticut (as a Californian, I think it’s cool that you can state-hop so easily in New England) to visit relatives, and my multi-talented and incredibly hospitable aunt had prepared a splendid summer dinner for us, including a blueberry pie! I’d been wanting to bake something with blueberries for a couple weeks now (Mr. Penpen’s mother sent me home with blueberries and some yummy-sounding recipes on the Fourth and I just ate the blueberries for breakfast) and this pie definitely satisfied the craving! I gave my aunt’s pie a 10 for Deliciousness and 0 for Effort. I can’t think of a better dessert on a summer evening, particularly when it’s been baked by someone else and eaten with family. I think I’m going to have to make one myself soon, though, Mr. Penpen just saw the pie photos from my trip!



The baking vacation ended within hours of getting off the plane, though. I’ve mentioned before, I’m a yeast bread novice, so I always feel a little apprehensive when one is selected. Fortunately, this was an astonishingly pliable dough (no big glutinous mess – yay!) and it was a very positive baking experience. I think if I had made this in one day, I might have felt like it was rather time-consuming, but since the dough rested overnight and just had to be “slapped” a few times the day it was made, I didn’t feel like it was an obtrusive project. There may be more yeast breads in my future. Instead of purchasing both plums and plum jam, I used leftover apricot jam from a recent unblogged apricot galette and bought some apricots. The brioche was nice and tender, and I loved the sweet, gooey fruit on top: an excellent breakfast for a relaxed morning off and even better later in the afternoon when the flavors melded a bit.





This recipe gets an 8.5 for Deliciousness and 3.5 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 2.42. Many thanks to Denise of Chez Us for selecting this great treat. You can find the recipe on Denise’s site and see what the other bakers thought via the TWD site.