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This simple, make ahead, baked creme brulee french toast is amazing and the perfect breakfast to serve on a holiday or for overnight guests.
Over the holidays my daughter attended a brunch at a friend’s house. She came home raving about the french toast her friend’s mother had made. Tessa is a french toast connoisseur.
Whenever we go out to breakfast Tessa almost always orders the french toast. She has eaten a lot of really good french toast as a result. After she went on and on about the french toast from the party I knew I needed to email the friend’s mom for the recipe. This Creme Brûlée French Toast is made the night ahead of time so you can have a quick and easy breakfast in the morning. It’s the perfect thing for a holiday breakfast or overnight guests.
What is Creme Brulee?
Creme Brûlée is a french dessert that consists of a smooth custard topped with caramelized sugar. This french toast is basically creme brulee over bread. The french toast has a yummy, gooey, caramely layer on top or on the bottom, depending on how you put it on the plate, thus the name Creme Brulee. Creme Brulee is one of my favorite desserts so I knew I would like it for breakfast too!
I served the french toast with a fresh strawberries but it would be wonderful with come caramelized apples or blueberry compote too.
How to Make Creme Brulee French Toast?
You begin with a layer of brown sugar and butter on the bottom of the pan. This creates a delicious gooey layer.
Place your sliced bread on the top. I used challah bread but you can use brioche bread or a crusty french bread that is sliced about one inch thick. French toast is the perfect thing to make when you’ve got some day old or slightly stale bread.
Pour your egg and milk mixture over the top. The recipe calls for half and half but I only had milk and whipping cream so I used half of each. That is basically what half and half is!
Cover it with some plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator over night. Just bring it to room temperature before baking and you are ready to go!
You may also enjoy these other french toast variations:
Creme Brulee French Toast Recipe
Creme Brulee French Toast
Ingredients
- 1/2 C unsalted butter
- 1 C packed brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp. corn syrup
- 1 loaf french brioche or challah bread
- 5 large eggs
- 1 1/2 C half and half
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp orange juice concentrate
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- In a small pan melt butter with brown sugar and corn syrup. Stir until smooth
- Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish
- Cut bread into 1″ thick slices. Arrange bread slices in pan, on top of sugar mixture.Squeeze them to fit together
- In a bowl mix together eggs, half and half, vanilla, OJ and salt. Pour evenly over bread
- Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night
- Heat oven to 350 degrees and bring bread to room temperature before baking
- Bake bread mixture uncovered until edges of pale gold. Approx 30-40 minutes
Nutrition Facts:
Tammy says
I was a bit skeptical about whether it would be a bit too soggy for my taste, but I couldn’t resist trying it – I mean, with a name like Creme Brulee, who could?? So I put it together this morning before heading out for jury duty and we had it for dinner tonight. MMMmmm!!! We loved it. It was pure heaven. It wasn’t too soggy and my husband loved the little custardy bits from in between the toast. I opened up your site to see if you had commented about serving them upside down so my husband saw the picture and wished he had some blueberry compote too. (We just had it plain, but it was still super yummy.) I won’t be making it again for a while seeing as it’s not exactly low fat and I have no will-power, but I will definitely be making it again some day! 🙂 Thanks!
Emmy says
This looks delicious. I love oven baked french toast. Thanks for sharing.
FoodontheTable says
This looks delicious! There is a restaurant in Austin that does this for brunch and I never quite figured out how. I’ll have to try this at home now!
Zupan's Markets says
This looks so good! Doesn’t look very difficult either, which is a great bonus. thanks!
Angela Merz says
Leigh Anne,
I am beyond excited to try this recipe. I, too, LOVE creme brulee & french toast so this recipe sounds amazing. Have company coming so I’ll be making it soon! Thank you!