Raspberry, Rose and Cardamom Bostocks

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Ever since writing about what I expect the 2025 Food Trends to be, floral flavours have been on my mind. As I mentioned back then, floral flavours can be divisive. While some love the additional complexity ingredients like orange blossom, rose water or some lavender, for example, can bring to desserts, others abhor their perceived soapiness. For me, it depends. I cannot seem to warm to lavender or violets as a flavour in cakes, pastries or similar, but I am hoping we’ll see more use of say chamomile, osmanthus, jasmine tea etc. going forward. And until then I will happily indulge in anything orange blossom or rose water flavoured! For example, these Raspberry, Rose and Cardamom Bostocks Kaja and I used to make for some of our supperclub events and that always went down a treat. Everyone is always surprised how quick and easy it is to make bostock (and how delicious - plus infinitely adaptable - they are).

If you have not yet had the pleasure of enjoying some bostock with your morning coffee, think of it as the love child of French Toast and Almond Croissants. Meaning you get the best of both worlds: an almost custardy slice of bread, a rich frangipane topping underneath crunchy slivered almonds and a dusting of icing sugar. This version is a riff on a bakewell tart recipe that is still in my draft recipes folder. And maybe that draft recipe will stay there and I will just end up continuing to make these bostocks instead, that would not be a bad outcome. Because underneath the rich and buttery frangipane topping there is a layer of rose petal jam mixed with fresh raspberries - the rose petal jam emphasizing the slightly floral flavour of the raspberries (after all, botanically speaking raspberries are but distant cousins of roses). At the same time, the acidity from the raspberries helps avoid any soapy undertones from the rose petal jam.

And if you are wondering what to bring to your next potluck brunch and you want something a little special but also something that doesn’t require you to spend hours slaving away in the kitchen, worrying whether your kitchen is too cold for yeast to do its magic, or whether your meringue has the right consistency or not, stop right there and make these bostocks instead. From start to finish they will take you maximum 1 hour, probably less (and the longest bit is waiting for the oven to pre-heat).

How do you feel about floral flavours? Do you hate them? Do you love them? Let me know in the comments below!

Raspberry, Rose and Cardamom Bostocks

Notes: These are endlessly adaptable – no rose petal jam? Use raspberry jam, a squeeze of lime or lemon juice and 1/2 to 1 tsp of rose water (or more to taste). You could also swap the jam for whichever one you have at home (bitter orange marmalade with a cacao nib frangipane could be lovely!) or leave out completely. You could also use a different nut for the frangipane – walnuts would be lovely with the cardamom too, and maybe with a layer of blueberry jam or some poached pears nestled in the frangipane.

Makes 8 Bostocks

Ingredients

1 pain de mie, ends cut off and cut into 8 thick slices (if not already stale, leave to dry out overnight)

For the sugar syrup: 50g sugar, 50ml water

For the frangipane
100g ground almonds
100g soft butter
100g sugar
Pinch of salt
Seeds of four cardamom pods, finely ground
2 eggs

100g rose petal jam
100g frozen or fresh raspberries, chopped roughly
8 tbsp slivered almonds
Icing sugar

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small saucepan bring the sugar and water to a boil just long enough for the sugar to dissolve completely. Set aside.

For the frangipane add the ground almonds, butter, sugar, salt and cardamom to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the eggs and pulse until combined.

Place four slices of the bread on each baking sheet. Liberally brush each slice with the sugar syrup. Mix the rose petal jam with the fresh raspberries and place a tablespoon of the mixture in the middle of each slice of bread. Cover with a layer of frangipane and scatter about 1 tbsp of slivered almonds over each slice. Repeat with the remaining four slices of bread.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the frangipane is nicely puffed up and golden brown. Dust generously with icing sugar and serve immediately.