How to Make Crème Brûlée French Toast for a Splendid Weekend Breakfast

A celebration baked French toast for special occasions.

• Unusual, sophisticated, and incredibly scrumptious
• Perfect for holidays or a Sunday morning
• Assembled and soaked ahead so that you can spend the morning with family or friends
• A creamy custard-like interior with a crackly melted sugar top
• Makes an unforgettable breakfast or brunch 

 

Creme Brulée is a baked French toast is also known as overnight French toast. It's soaked in a baking pan in the egg wash in the refrigerator and baked in the oven in the morning. So it's convenient; most of the work can be made ahead.

This baked French toast has an unusual twist, a coating of buttery brown sugar on the top that melts in the oven and then becomes a hard, crackly crunch as it cools reminiscent of the melted sugar on the top of crème Brulée. 

As with other French toasts, the egg soaks through the bread and becomes a custard as it cooks. This uses thick slices of bread, and the overnight soak allows the egg wash to soak completely through the bread. The brown sugar spread that becomes the crackly topping is applied in the morning before baking.

It's a luscious twist on baked French toast.

This is the baked French toast you want to serve guests when they come to visit. It's unusual, sophisticated, and it's incredibly scrumptious. It's perfect for a holiday breakfast. And most of the work is done the day before so you can spend the morning with family or friends.

Chances are your friends don't know baked French toast and they will want to know how you did this. They will be intrigued with crackly topping.

You can use the melted brown sugar from the topping as a syrup. It will be a thick syrup with a touch of butter rum flavor from the wash and a richness from the butter and the dairy.

Your friends will never forget your baked French toast.

  

"This bread (Potato Honey Bread) makes the best crème Brûleé French toast ever,"--Erica Sellers

Learn more about Potato Honey Bread here!

 

 

Creme Brulée French Toast

There is nothing difficult about this and it's convenient. Set the bread to soak as much as two days beforehand.

This bread is really soft and, after soaking, is going to get soggy. Use a wide pancake spatula to move it.

You'll need a large baking sheet for baking, an 11 1/2 by 17 should do but you can use two pans.  You can also bake it in two batches if you prefer, say half on Saturday and half on Sunday.

You're going to like this.

• 6 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups whole milk
• 3 tablespoons orange juice from one orange
• 2 teaspoons butter rum flavor (you may use vanilla)
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 loaf  Potato Honey Bread or equal, sliced one-inch thick
• 1 cup brown sugar lightly pressed into the measuring cup
• 1/4-pound butter, melted

Directions

1. Mix the eggs with milk, orange juice, flavor, nutmeg, and salt until smooth, the whites and the eggs well combined.
2. Spread a little shortening on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Cover the pan with parchment paper. (The shortening will help hold the parchment paper in place and will make clean-up easier.)
3. Layer the bread slices on the baking sheet. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and cover the pan with plastic wrap.
4. Place the pan in the refrigerator to soak overnight. In the morning, using a broad pancake-type spatula, turn the slices over. Let them continue soaking for at least an hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. While it's heating, mix the melted butter and brown sugar together. Spread the brown sugar evenly on a second baking sheet.
6. Using your pancake spatula, move the soaked bread slices to the sugared pan, placing them evenly over the brown sugar layer.  
7. Bake until the sugar is melted and bubbling and the bread is baked a golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes depending how thick the bread slices are.
8. Serve immediately with the crunchy side up. Do not stack the slices so that the tops remain crunchy.  While the sugar syrup is still hot and runny, pour the syrup into a microwave-safe pitcher.  Use that as your syrup for your baked French toast, reheating it in the microwave if needed.

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Make this for company or just to spoil your family on a lazy Sunday morning.  And it's perfect for an after-church brunch.

 

 

Baker's notes:

Creme brulée is merely a custard with a crackly, melted sugar topping. This French toast mimics creme Brulé.

The brown sugar topping melts and makes a crackly top just like creme Brulé. 

The soft, open crumb of Potato Honey Bread and the thicker slices in the overnight soak absorbs the most egg and dairy mix resulting a smooth interior, more like crème brûleé. 

The added orange and butter rum flavors mimic the rum sometimes used in creme brulée. As an option, you can use a good vanilla if you want.  

Learn more about Potato Honey Bread.

Get Butter Rum Flavor here.

Learn about Madagascar Vanilla

 

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Late fall on the Snake River in Eastern Idaho not far from The Prepared Pantry. (Image by Merri Ann Weaver)